Speed Unmatched
by Wyrtha
Summary: Naruto learns that not having everyone's attention isn't the worst thing. Unfortunately all good things must come to an end as Naruto becomes a legend thanks to his speed. Bloodline Naruto, powerful Naruto, pairing unknown but not a harem. Challenge fic by Narutoenthusiast
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto nor anyone who does ... if I did ... well I probably wouldn't need this disclaimer

**Naruto Speed Unmatched - Chapter 1: The Chase  
**

"Get back here demon!" shouted a man in his early thirties. "Yeah Demon get back here and accept your punishment!" yelled a boy that looked to be barely out of the academy. "Stop the demon!" shouted a woman to a group of people just ahead of where she was running. "Catch him!" shouted a man from the back of a mob. "Come on he went left!" shouted a grey haired old man as the demon slipped temporarily out of view.

Those watching the scene could only shake their heads and keep moving. While few held any sympathy for the person being chased no one liked to see a child being abused even if he deserved it. Who was this child that was being chased by thirty men and women through the streets of the normally quaint and peaceful village of Konoha you might ask. That child was none other than Naruto Uzumaki better known to those over the age of 10 as the Kyūbi jinchūriki or just plain Kyūbi to the more ignorant populous of Konoha.

Little Naruto was doing his best to run from the crazed mob. It was his birthday and he felt like celebrating, because his jiji told him he could attend the academy soon. Naruto was beyond happy as he always wanted to become a ninja like his hero the Yondiame Hokage and his jiji. He came out to the festival thinking today was a good day and despite warnings against going outside by the old man. Naruto spent most of the day going from stall to stall playing games at the expense of gama-chan his frog wallet and eating the most delicious food he had ever eaten. Most of the stalls he went to were of non-Konoha residents as he knew from previous experience anyone from Konoha would simply refuse him service and chase him away if he said anything, but he did a pay a visit to the Ichiraku stall of course.

Naruto hadn't won anything at the game stalls, but he simply enjoyed being able to play the games and be among the other citizens of Konoha. He even got to try some good food from foreign lands not that any of it compared to the wonder that was ramen. It was still light out when the trouble started. Naruto had been going from stall to stall mingling with the crowd when he was suddenly pushed from behind and unable to stop himself stumbled and ultimately fell in an alley. It was as Naruto stood back up and brushed himself off that he got a sudden sense of danger and quickly moved to the side as a knife flew through the area he had recently occupied. Still sensing danger Naruto turned to where he thought the knife had come from and was confronted by a mob of twenty or more civilians holding various weapons.

Naruto quickly turned and ran being much faster than any of the civilians it was easy to stay ahead of them. The problem came when a few ninja decided to join in the chase and help capture the boy. They wouldn't join in torturing Naruto as the punishment to previous shinobi who did was quiet severe when found out. They would simply help in his capture and let the civilians do the dirty work as the council would be able to step in and pardon them and there was little the old Hokage could do about it unlike with the shinobi.

So here Naruto was once again running for his life. He didn't understand why this happened to him or why he couldn't play with children his own age or why it was hard for him to purchase things for a fair price if at all, but Naruto still loved his village and wanted to be a hero one day. Naruto hid underneath a cart of one of the visiting festival goers listening as the sounds of the mob grew closer and closer and where finally upon his location. His heart beat faster in fear as he tried to think of what to do next, but as quickly as they came they went and Naruto listened as the sounds of anger and pounding feet grew father into the distance.

It wasn't until he heard nothing that Naruto crawled out from underneath the cart and thanked Kami and any god that was listening to him for being safe. Naruto looked around and realizing where he was started his long trek home. He made it halfway down the block when he was pushed down a sandaled foot came crashing down on his back. Naruto lifted his head and tried to look behind him at the man that had his foot on his back. "What are you doing?" Naruto asked. "Why I'm capturing a fox of course" the man said after a minutes pause. He then flared his chakra signaling the other chunin among the mob that had run ahead. He only stuck around because something in the back of his mind told him to.

Naruto was struggling to get up from his position and escape. He knew he was no match for the man keeping him down, but he needed to find something anything and that's when he saw it. The chunin had just finished signaling his partners when suddenly a sharp pain erupted from his leg. He was trained to ignore pain, but this came so unexpectedly he could do little but jump away and off his prey. It wasn't until he removed the sharp stone that stuck an inch or so into his leg cutting his thigh muscle in the process that he looked around for the little brat that did it to him and found no one. He was quickly surrounded by his friends who left the mob hearing their friend shout from around the corner. The two started searching for the little monster but returned just as the mob formed around their friend to report not finding the boy.

Naruto saw the sharp looking rock and wondered where it came from, but quickly pushed that thought aside. Taking the rock he twisted around a little before gathering all his strength and stabbing the man he could now see was a ninja in the leg with the rock. As soon as the mans foot was off his back Naruto quickly got on his feet and ran around the corner towards his home it was as he was running with thoughts of going faster and faster scared that one of the chunin in the mob would catch up to him that things around him seemed to slow down. He weaved in and out of the citizens and shinobi so fast it was hard for him to keep control, but he soon found himself in front of his building and smacked right into the door and through it falling onto the steps.

It was a few minutes before he was able to pick himself up and groaning limped up to his apartment and passed out after making sure the door was locked and secure. Before he hit the pillow though Naruto wondered what happened back there when he was running away. He was running so fast, but it seemed controlled like some ability he had awoken. He promised himself he would figure it out soon and drifted away to dream about better days.

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Thank you for reading another new story. This a challenge from Narutoenthusiast that I am taking up. It's a bloodline fic staring the new Swift bloodline. I hope you enjoy my version of this challenge and for anyone who may want to take it themselves check out .net/u/1646974/Narutoenthusiast

And as always 'til next time my dear readers :)


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer : I don't own Naruto or this idea as it is a challenge fic.**

**Chapter Two**

It was a week since the chase and Naruto now stood in front of the academy. This was his first day, but the school had been in session for a month now so he was already behind. Walking through the doors Naruto noticed the same looks he got everywhere in Konoha. A few looked mad at him for some reason, but mostly nothing like he wasn't even there … a ghost. He used to hate that look … like they were so much better than him and he could never be on their level. So he acted stupid and pranked people, but they still gave him those looks so he stopped.

Finding his classroom he realized he was early and took a seat in the back. The class filed in one by one and took their seats rarely bothering to even look his way. Those that did merely went back to what they were doing and ignored him just like when he saw them around the village. They never let him play any games with them. They beat him up a few times or chased him away, but mostly they gave him those vacant eyes that seemed to look right through him … judging him as insignificant and resuming their play.

The teacher finally comes in right after two girls one with pink hair and the other with blonde hair came screaming into the room. He did something with his hands and then his head got all big and he yelled and everything grew quiet. Naruto wasn't sure if this happened everyday or just today, but he wasn't looking forward to a repeat performance. The roll was called and eventually the teacher got to his name, but instead of calling him he frowned and then called someone else's name.

The instructor finished calling roll then asked if he left anyone out. Naruto raised his hand, but the teacher put the report down and then went on to teach his lesson. Naruto called out, but the man didn't answer so he got louder and still no one even turned their heads toward him just went on with the lesson. Naruto decided to just sit and wait for lunch to confront the man. Four long hours later the teacher dismissed everyone while sitting at his desk.

Naruto walked up to the man's desk. "Ugh … hello sensei" Naruto said deciding to start off polite. The man looked up from his work not recognizing the voice addressing him. He looked at Naruto then went back to his work. Naruto wanted to yell and scream and shout, but decided to try again instead. "Umm … excuse me sensei, but you forgot to call my name this morning when you were taking attendance" Naruto said politely.

The man didn't even look at him so Naruto walked out of the room and went to Ichiraku's. Reaching his home away from home Naruto sat in his usual seat and waited. It didn't take long for Ayame to come out of the back and great Naruto. "Hello Naruto-kun, how has your first day gone so far?" Ayame asked the younger boy. Deciding to not involve Ayame Naruto smiled bright and then said, "It was great. I'll be Hokage in no time just you watch, believe it!" Naruto shouted giving Ayame a thumbs up. She giggled then took his order and went in back where her father was to prepare the food.

Naruto arrived back at the school after eating his ramen only to find the door locked. He looked around and found a clock with the correct time. He still had five minutes before lunch was over. Naruto didn't understand what was going on and knocked on the door. Getting no answer Naruto banged harder and harder until he couldn't no more as his fist hurt. Other teachers came out and yelled for him to be quiet. This wouldn't get him down or stop him either so Naruto shouted "I'll be back, believe it!" and ran off outside.

The next day Naruto returned at the same time as yesterday so he was early again. When everyone was settled and roll began to be called Naruto expected what came next … his name not being called again. He went to the Hokage about what happened, but the old man just said he would have to endure it that they would see him for him sooner or later. Naruto just scoffed, but when his name wasn't called this time he didn't make a fuss about it. Instead he sat and waited until it was over and listened to what was being taught, but instead of leaving for lunch Naruto would pull out a lunch he made and eat in the class room. He would even do exercises to pass the time or read a book.

When classes began again he would sit, watch, and listen jotting down anything he found interesting or important. The good thing about this was he never got called out in class even one day when he had been training until very late at night so he fell asleep in class he wasn't bothered. Shikamaru was so jealous that the blond kid he was told to ignore got to sleep, but he didn't that for the first time in his life he began to hate someone. He even tried to point Naruto out to the teacher as the blond slept, but the man acted as if Naruto wasn't even there frustrating Shika to the point he couldn't even sleep any more.

That was the way time passed for the next few years Naruto would arrive early and sit through lectures, but not actively participate in anything even the physical portions, which he mainly did on his own after school let out. Naruto wasn't idle thou due to everyone treating him as if he wasn't there Naruto learned to observe and replicate what he saw better. He also became privy to things he shouldn't like certain techniques that were done right in front of him as the caster of said jutsus ignored him not believing he would be able to pick up what they were doing from merely watching. So Naruto gained a nice repertoire of jutsu even a few forbidden jutsu from what the old Hokage told him when he caught him practicing one of them in an empty training field.

Still, his tiajutsu suffered due to never having anyone to practice with. He actually found two styles he liked one for regular use and one for use with his bloodline when he practiced with it in secret. The first was Leopard Kung Fu of the Five Animals style, a style that relied on speed and outsmarting the opponent. It utilized hit and run tactics and Naruto figured if he could combine it with seals or explosive tags it would make him a fearsome opponent especially when used with his bloodline. Masters of the style were said to be able to block and attack at the same time, but it would be some time before he could pull that off besides blocking wasn't essential in the style and often times over looked as dodging blows all together was preferred to taking any hits.

The other style he chose was Capoeira. It was fun to learn and he loved the constant movement the style required. It was a style based around deception and evasion two things he was known for. This would be the style he used against a singular opponent or when stealth wasn't an option. Naruto wasn't actually sure how practical the style was for a ninja, but that didn't matter and he could always change it around later. Boxing, kick boxing, and grappling moves were also added to things he learned just to be more well rounded and perhaps combine styles later on.

Kenjutsu was also something Naruto dabbled in having found an abandoned katana in a training field one day. It was slow going since he really had no clue what he was doing and mainly just swung it around utilizing both hands not wanting to be restricted in case he eventually does learn a style.

The only area Naruto neglected was genjutsu. It wasn't that he didn't find genjutsu interesting or anything actually it was quite the opposite. It's just that it was extremely hard for him to do even the basic academy genjutsu and with no one to help him and most of the information he got on the subject being extremely limited it just wasn't worth it to really work on it. Still, he thought in the future he would try to learn some.

Tomorrow the graduation exams would take place and he would move on to the next phase of his life.

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**Hello everyone! I know this isn't WR, but bare with me here. I got the bug to work on a few of the stories I've neglected recently and a few of them actually had chapters ready that I just haven't posted yet. Don't worry though as I still have the WR bug and really want to get to what I'm beginning to think will be the Finale of WR so I'm working on it. Anyway until next time dear reader :)  
**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer : I don't own Naruto or this idea as it is a challenge fic.**

**Chapter Three**

Naruto was at his desk working on the first part of the Gennin Exams. He had been surprised when he arrived early as usual and found a new teacher already in the classroom. The man didn't seem to take any notice of him, but for the first time since he began at the academy his name was called during roll call. The other kids, minus Shikamaru who thought for once the blond bastard wasn't getting preferential treatment, stared at Naruto not really remembering who he was.

Shikamaru though hated the blond boy as he envied him and his ability to do anything he wanted with nobody bothering him. Yet the bastard didn't even take advantage of that by lazing around and taking a good nap. No, instead the bastard would actually listen and take notes even though he didn't have to do any work and when school would let out Shikamaru would some times follow him and find the idiot doing exercises and training.

'Doesn't this baka get it he has no parents nagging him when he goes home, the teachers ignore him, the other kids avoid him he could just find a nice area to lay out in and watch the clouds. He could just fall out and go to sleep wherever he wanted for as long as he wanted and no one would care. Yet all he does is work even when no one is looking or even cares that he doing such work. I really hate him' Shikamaru thought as his pencil snapped from the pressure he exerted on it do to his anger over a certain work aholic blond.

Thinking about all the possibilities of the lazing around he would do if he was the blond made Shikamaru's anger transition into exhaustion as he slowly lowered his head onto his desk and began to go to his favorite place … dreamland where he would dream of nothing but clouds and laying on those clouds … all of them.

*Smack* Shikamaru was instantly brought out of his dreams as he rubbed his aching head. Looking around he saw the new teacher with a stack of papers he held thrust out in front him.

"Now that your awake Shikamaru you can hand these out to the class" The teacher with a scar across his nose said placing the stack down on Shika's desk.

"What? Why me?" Shikamaru asked rubbing his head gently where he'd been hit.

"I asked for volunteers, but only you were caught not paying attention. Why can't you be more like that blond kid over there who looks so attentive and interested in what we are doing" the new teacher says.

For Shikamaru that was an insult of the highest order and drove his hate up another notch for the blond. If he wasn't so lazy he would have voiced said hate or glared the kid into submission, but that would require too much work so he festered in his hate vowing to make the baka pay some day.

'I'll use my shadow possession jutsu and force him to just stand all day and when he's tired and wants to sit I won't let him. No, I'll force him to lay down instead and look up into the sky … yeah then I'll get to lay down and watch the clouds and he won't be able to do anything' Shikamaru thought as he lazily passed out the tests making sure Naruto got one as well.

For Naruto the test wasn't hard, but he didn't want any attention so he purposely got a few wrong. Naruto had learned his lesson about seeking attention as it never wound up good for him. The past few years he had learned to embrace the fact everyone ignored him even the Hokage seemed to ignore him saying he had too much work to be bothered or some crap like that. If he got loud it didn't change anything, if he did something bad he'd just get hurt and then everything would go back to the way it was. So now he preferred the way people treated him although there were a few exceptions like the Ichiraku's who were always nice to him, but he even came to realize they were just nice people who treated everyone the same and he was no exception.

Naruto acted like he was still working on his paper until at least half of the class seemed to be done and then placed his paper face down on his desk. A half hour later everyone was done and sitting around talking as the chūnin, whose name was Umino Iruka, graded the papers. Naruto just sat in his seat reading a book. It was an autobiography penned by a retired jōnin that had survived the second and third shinobi world wars. The book was of course censored leaving out many details, but still gave the reader at least a glimpse into the horrors of war and combat.

By the time Naruto had finished his third chapter Iruka was ready to move on to the next part of the exam. Everyone moved outside in their own little clicks or not so little considering the Uchiha fan club was collectively stalking the last remaining loyal Uchiha. Naruto just went outside unnoticed by most as he readied himself for the next test.

The test turned out to be weapon throwing in which Iruka and a couple of chūnin that introduced themselves as Izumo and Kotetsu handed out ten shuriken and ten kunai to everyone. Most of the class managed to pass with the Uchiha of course leading the way with a nearly perfect score. Shino Aburame took second, Kibua Inuzuka fourth, and Hinata Hyūga led the girls finishing third.

The rest of the students and the teachers were surprised by the shy, stuttering, meek Hyūga's performance. Naruto wasn't though as he knew the true Hinata Hyūga and not the weak, stuttering, submissive girl she showed to her clan and those outside of her clan. Hinata had taken to the deceiving part of the shinobi code like a fish to water from an early age. Her act was instilled in her by her mother before she died. Hana Hyūga knew her daughter would be in danger as the clan's council wasn't happy with Hiashi's choice of bride being a woman from outside the clan nor did they like the thought of a female clan head. Hinata's behavior was one that would ensure they would leave her alone and not treat her as a threat while her kindness to the branch members would endear her to them giving her a solid base of support in the clan as the branch members made up at least two thirds of the clans populous. It was also why she espoused one of her goals in life to be the abolishing of the Caged Bird Seal. She meant it, but it also served to elevate her status among the branch members of the clan.

Naruto made the mistake of thinking he could befriend Hinata seeing as she was looked down upon as well, but quickly found that assumption to be false. Hinata had rejected him just like everyone else not even acknowledging his presence. His problems were his own and she shed no tears for the boy leaving him as so many others had to suffer in silence. He had also seen her take down a civilian boy that thought he could humble the weak, shy, stuttering Hyūga heiress when they were away from prying eyes. She wasn't mean or arrogant, but she was … serious he guessed would be the word to describe her.

Naruto himself managed to hit seven out of ten with kunai and six out of ten with shuriken placing himself eighth in the class behind the majority of the clan heirs and a few civilians. The class then moved back inside as they each displayed the three standard jutsu to complete the gennin exams. Naruto managed to do the henge, kwarimi, and thanks to dedicating a lot of his training to chakra control exercises he managed to make six standard clones. At this point the class was dismissed a few never to return again moving into a civilian lifestyle while the rest contemplated what team they would be on and who they would get as teammates.

Meanwhile, in the Hokage's office a group of jōnin were discussing the team assignments and who they wanted on their squads. It was more of a formality than anything as the Hokage would make the final decision and the jōnin would get what they were given and have to suck it up. Of course their were a few knowns in the selection process.

One being that Kakashi Hatake would get the Uchiha despite many protests and others clamoring for the vaunted position of being the last loyal uchiha's sensei. Hatake was not only considered one of the best ninja Konoha had to offer, but thanks to a sacrifice made by his deceased teammate who was an Uchiha he had a sharingan and would be able to help the boy with developing his prized bloodline. Next was Asuma Sarutobi who requested a remake of the old Ino-Shika-Cho formation as all three clan heads had children in the graduating class. The last was newly minted jōnin sensei Kurenai Yuhi whom requested the Hyūga heiress as she saw her like an adopted sister or daughter.

That left one team done, two incompletes, and the rest to be filled out afterwards. Kakashi could careless who he got really so he picked Sakura Haruno the supposed kunoichi of the year even though everyone knew she was probably third or fourth among the prospective kunoichi with Kurenai's girl being first and the Yamanaka girl being second. This also got the girls mother a civilian council woman off his back as she had been advocating loudly for her precious Sakura to be teamed up with the Uchiha heir. He really didn't care who was the third shinobi on the team, but had a few prospects that caught his eye if for no other reason than nobody would care if he trained them or not.

Kurenai chose Aburame Shino for her second choice. She figured his stoic and serious demeanor would be welcomed by Hinata not to mention he was second behind the Uchiha boy for rookie of the year. Thinking about her team led her to realize it was becoming something of a tracking or reconnaissance team due to Hinata's byakugan and the Aburame's clan techniques with their bugs. All she needed now was a third member to round them out either a tracking type like the Inuzuka boy or a genjutsu type.

If she had her preference Kurenai would go with a genjutsu type as she always wanted to mentor the next great genjutsu master and have someone following in her footsteps. Hinata was her imouto, but due to her clans rather strict guidelines she couldn't teach her any genjutsu beyond the basic henge. The Aburame were also limited, but that was mostly due to the conditions of their partnership with the bugs that lived inside of them. If only things had worked out better with the Kurama heir she'd have the perfect team … 'wait perhaps that's it' she thought.

After a bit of arguing, begging, and some compromises on her part a few she would never mention publicly Kurenai got her perfect team now all she had to do was convince Yakumo to give her a second change and find a new way to fix her problem. The Hokage was willing to help with a part of that sending for Jiraiya to come and help out as they thought sealing could lead to the solution or he might come up with something they hadn't. Still, the Hokage was leaving convincing Jiraiya to help out up to her and she could guess what the perverted Sannin might want for such a task.

That left the Inuzuka for Kakashi to take and he was all to happy to. The Inuzuka wouldn't need him really as he would get plenty of training from his mother the clan head or other members of his clan. This meant all he really had to deal with were Sasuke and Sakura and the pink haired fan girl didn't seem the type to want to train much so all he really had to deal with was Sasuke. This would leave him plenty of free time to do whatever he wanted including reading his favorite book.

With Teams 7, 8, and 10 out of the way this left the other gennin candidates for the remaining jōnin. These would be the teams most likely to fail and sent back to the academy or go into civilian life. If anything truly terrible happened like war they could be commissioned then as reservists, but for the most part the tediously boring existence of a civilian was what was waiting for them. Sorting through the remaining teams took less than an hour with the clan heirs out of the way and most not caring about who they got as they were destined to fail. The Hokage dismissed them, but reminded them to show up at the academy at 8 a.m. to pick up their squads.

Returning to his paperwork the Hokage thought about the various prospective gennin and their teams. He couldn't help but feel like he was forgetting someone important. A kid with blond hair and deep blue eyes flashed into his mind before exiting his thoughts just as quickly. He focused back on his paperwork readying himself for the days to come.

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**Hello everyone! I hoped you enjoyed the latest chapter of Speed Unlimited. I would like to apologize to everyone whom has taken the time to review. I appreciate each and every one so don't think I'm ignoring you, but until whatever this bug is that's messing up the review reply function is fixed I won't be answering you directly and I'm not the type to do so in an A/N. I again apologize and hope things are fixed soon so that I can respond to all of you once again.**

**I also want to apologize for a mistake on my part. I guess when I started this challenge I was deeply in love with the Naru-Hina pairing and to a degree I still am. I really only see her as a true love interest for Naruto among girls his age in Konoha although I do see potential for Ino. Anyway after a small inner debate I've decided that Hinata isn't going to be the girl for this Naruto. I'm still unsure as to who exactly that will be, but for right now a pairing is inconsequential to the story so it doesn't matter. All I can say is this isn't a harem story it will be one lady and it will happen some time after the time skip.  
**

**So again thanks for reading, sorry for not answering your reviews, and keep reading okay. Until next time dear reader :)  
**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer : I don't own Naruto or this idea as it is a challenge fic by Narutoenthusiast.**

**Chapter Four  
**

The Hokage sat in his office with about twenty of his most prominent jōnin. They were all waiting for one last person to arrive. It was another half hour later before said person arrived.

"Glad you could finally join us Kakashi. Take a seat" The Hokage says motioning to an empty seat in front of his desk that sat beside the team leaders of team's eight and ten.

"My apologies Hokage-samma, but I got a little caught up in something. You see …" Kakashi begin to say only to be interrupted.

"Save it Kakashi and take a seat" The old Hokage says forgoing Kakashi's habit of making outrageously false tales of his journeys on the so called road of life.

Kakashi reluctantly sat down frowning beneath his mask at not being able to tell his story.

"Okay, now that everyone is here I want to hear how the team testing went and if you passed or failed your unit. You have the option to not discuss the testing in detail, but give a general description of the testing and a pass or fail. For those of you who fail your group I want your recommendation for the group on whether they should be put in the reserves, back in the academy, or forced into civilian life" The Hokage says and then points at Asuma to start things off. Asuma stood up and began.

"I didn't really see the need to test my team Hokage-samma so I passed them and spent the time getting to know them and finding out about their skills" Asuma says then sits down.

Those in the room could only groan at the man and his lasses faire attitude towards his team. However, this group was scheduled to be passed through no matter what so with that they moved on to Kurenai.

"I was unable to test my team as Jiraiya-samma won't be back in Konoha for another week or so. He has agreed to inquire about solutions to Yakumo's problem while he is away and to seeing what he can do when he arrives. I have also spoken with Yakumo and the head of the Kurama clan. It was difficult but she has agreed to work with my team and hopefully with time come to forgive me. The Kurama head was ecstatic when he heard his niece will receive help soon and signed off as well on her becoming a ninja again. As for the rest of the team I gave them a tracking test and both were willing to work together and managed to find me in the allotted time. I believe when they finally come together Team 8 will be a great asset to the village" Kurenai says then sits down.

Hiruzen nodded at the report, but had to ask "What made my wayward pupil decided to help out Kurenai-chan?"

"I would rather not say Hokage-samma" Kurenai says as she tries to hide the deep red blush that stained her cheeks.

The deal Kurenai struck required for her to pose in various states of undress as a model for Jiraiya's next novel. There would be no nudity involved, but some very skimpy lingerie that Jiraiya would be providing was apart of the deal. She gave a shudder when she remembered he also stipulated she was to give the lingerie back after the modeling session was over with. Kurenai didn't want to even think about what he would do with them. Still, if this meant Yakumo could be healed and her past mistake fixed she would go through with it as what happened with Yakumo was a regret that still weighed heavily upon her.

The Hokage nodded, but had to turn as his cheeks gained a pink hue and blood threatened to leak from his nose at the thoughts he was having over what his pupil and author of the famous Icha Icha would ask for. He knew his student wouldn't go overboard with his request. Jiraiya as bad as he is wasn't a rapist and wouldn't force Kurenai to do anything she wouldn't feel comfortable doing.

Turning to the last jōnin seated before him Hiruzen nodded for him to give his evaluation.

"They were in a word … terrible Hokage-samma. The Inuzuka kept trying to pick fights with Uchiha-san. The Haruno girl wouldn't do anything that didn't involve her precious 'Sasuke-kun' unless it was to try and physically bash the Inuzuka boy for insulting Sasuke. Sasuke himself was what I expected him to be, but I fear his teammates might hold him back. They failed my original test, but I gave them a second that they managed to pass albeit barely" Kakashi says.

The Hokage nods at the conclusion of the review. These teams were not what he was expecting and they should probably all be failed and forced to spend another year in the academy. However, these were clan heirs and he couldn't afford not to pass them through not to mention there had been a significant drop off recently in new gennin thanks to the civilian councils meddling. Only one team from the previous year was still active and the upcoming crop wasn't too promising.

Turning to the rest of the assembled jōnin Hiruzen asked, "Okay what about the rest of you. I only need a pass or fail response".

"Team 1 failed. I gave the standard team test. I recommend that they return to the academy" says a brown haired jōnin with green eyes.

"Team 2 failed. I also gave the standard team test. I recommend that they become civilians" says a dark haired brown eyed jōnin.

"Team 3 failed. I gave my team a tracking test. I recommend that they also become civilians" says a jōnin with dark blue hair and the whites of the Hyūga.

"Team 4 passed" says a man with dull black haired tied back in a pony tail and black eyes.

At this everyone turned to the man with an incredulous stare. It wasn't unprecedented but in times of peace it was unusual for more than three teams to pass. There was even an agreement to disarm and keep everyone equal. Of course there were ways around this and some villages just out right ignored it but generally three would officially pass and the others would be sent back to the academy, become civilians, or those that showed promise would be put in the reserves to form a team later. So it was a bit of a shock that there was another team thought worthy to pass.

"Please tell us who your gennin are, the manner of testing, and how they managed to pass Shirakumo-san" The Hokage says. If he didn't like the answer to the last two questions he would fail the team, but they would be put into the reserves.

"My name is Shirakumo Hayama, my gennin team consists of Minakura tomaru, Fuki, and Uzumaki Naruto. First I observed them for a bit to see how they got along together which was fine none of them really seemed to have any problem with their other teammates. Then I tested their skills which were good enough for graduating gennin, but none of them really stood out over the other. Then I gave them a seek and destroy mission where they had to find a water clones I had hiding somewhere in the training ground and defeat it. They managed to accomplish the task just under the time limit" Hayama says.

The Hokage nods in response allowing the other jōnin to give their expected reports of failure while he pondered on Team 4. 'I normally would have put them in the reserves, but Shirakumo-san actually tested them well and from what he says they seem to have the requisite skills required. I am ashamed to admit I have forgotten about Naruto as I haven't heard much from him lately, but I am glad he was able to pass after all and without my help' the Sandiame thought.

The rest of the meeting passed with no other surprises and everyone went home. The old Hokage thought about calling for a meeting with Naruto to see how he was doing and what he thought of his team, but decided against it. The boy had done well enough it seems without his intervention so perhaps he could continue on under the radar for awhile longer.

* * *

**Hello everyone! I hoped you enjoyed the latest chapter of Speed Unlimited. I would like to apologize to everyone whom has taken the time to review. I appreciate each and every one so don't think I'm ignoring you, but until whatever this bug is that's messing up the review reply function is fixed I won't be answering you directly and I'm not the type to do so in an A/N. I again apologize and hope things are fixed soon so that I can respond to all of you once again.**

**So again thanks for reading, sorry for not answering your reviews, and keep reading okay. Until next time dear reader :)  
**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer : I don't own Naruto or this idea as it is a challenge fic by Narutoenthusiast.**

**Chapter Five  
**

"Naruto you are to rigid relax your shoulders a bit" Hayama instructed.

**Clang, Clack, Clang**

"Tomaru keep your guard up" Hayama says.

**Clack, Clang, Clang, Clack**

"Boys that's enough bring it in" Hayama says stopping the spar a few minutes later.

Both Naruto and Tomaru ran up to where their sensei and third teammate Fuki stood underneath a tree in Training Ground 23. It was like most of the training areas in Konoha a wooded area with a few good sized clearings and a couple of smaller ones in it. This was the last training ground available to his team as the others had priority. Still, it was a good area to train in for what Hayama wanted to teach them for now and by the time they required different elements to train with there would be openings at other training grounds.

Naruto looked at his team. They had started training a week ago with the first order of business being chakra control. Naruto had pretty much exhausted what he could gain from the Leaf Floating exercise and had gotten to the point where he had at least five leaves on his head, arms, back of his hands, palms, torso, back, thighs, legs, and the top of his feet. He wanted to move on to more difficult exercises but being an academy student meant he was limited to mostly academy student or civilian means of training.

Learning the Tree Climbing exercise gave him a small boost to his chakra control. Naruto already worked out how he could modify the exercise to see even more benefits. He immediately came to the conclusion combining the Leaf Floating exercise with Tree Climbing would pay the most dividends, but all that had to wait until he mastered Tree Climbing. After a few days none of them had yet to get all the way up the tree. Fuki was the closest being she had the smallest chakra reserves, Naruto thanks to all his hours working with the academy level exercise had enough control that he was a third of the way up his tree just behind Fuki, Tomaru had yet to make it half way but was improving every day.

The next thing Hayama wanted them to work on was kenjutsu. Hayama himself was a swordsman and wanted his own team of swordsmen/swordswomen thus he took his new team to a shop run by an old friend. Izo Harustuchi was a war orphan both of his parents dying in the 2nd shinobi world war. He was a retired chūnin a veteran of the 3rd shinobi world wars and an all around good guy. His store wasn't as good as say the Higurashi Weapons Emporium or a few other notable stores, but he made dependable weapons that were affordable.

He bought each of them a katana although Tomaru wanted a bigger zanpakto despite not being of sufficient height to wield one. Naruto also had to admit he secretly wanted a bigger sword, but kept quiet since Shirakumo-sensei was paying out of his own pocket. This was something rare to Naruto as normally no one gave him anything so he treasured the sword his sensei bought even if it was a rather cheaply made mass production model. Sensei said he would help them pick out better swords and pay half for it if they were serious about continuing to learn kenjutsu. So far all of them gave the hour reserved for kenjutsu practice their all even Fuki whom didn't want to weild a sword initially.

Naruto had learned a little about his teammates in their introductions given before their team test. Tomaru was an energetic kid of civilian background. He had an older sister that worked as a waitress, a little brother just starting out at the academy, a baby brother not even a year old, his father was a maintenance worker, his mother a bank teller, and his dream was to be Hokage. It was a grand dream one Naruto once held and it allowed him to bond a little with his male teammate.

Fuki was an orphan and had joined the academy with her friends Ami and Kasumi in hopes to escape civilian life. She was also a member of the Sasuke Fan Club as Naruto remembered her and her friends bullying some of their weaker classmates. The girl didn't seem to have much in the way of skills, but she had been working hard to get better so far so Naruto would withhold judgment of her for now. So far they got along well enough to get through whatever training sensei had planned for them for the day.

"I called you all over early, because I think you are ready for your first mission" Hayama says.

Naruto and Tomaru grinned broadly since they had been eagerly anticipating their first mission.

"What do you think it will be sensei? Do you think we'll travel to a distant land and rescue a princess from a bad guy looking to take over her kingdom" Tomaru starts.

"No way Tomaru, it would probably be something like fighting off hordes of bandits trying to rob civilians on their way to the capitol" Naruto says.

"No way we're going to be rescuing princesses and fighting bad guys who would destroy the world. We will be hero's and then the Hokage will have to recognize my brilliance and make me his successor!" Tomaru shouts.

"No way they'd probably give missions like that to teams of jōnin. It's got to be bandit elimination or perhaps we have to capture a missing-nin" Naruto says in rebuttal.

Hayama and Fuki could only groan. Naruto's suggestions were more realistic even if far fetched for a newly minted gennin squad, but Tomaru was prone to flights of fancy. The two would often bicker about what their first mission would be. He almost chuckled as he imagined their faces when they finally received their mission for the day.

"Okay that's enough guys let's just go and get the mission already. If you two keep squabbling over what mission you think we'll get the real missions will be all gone by the time we get there" Hayama says.

He gets the desired result as both boys quiet down and follow their sensei and teammate out of the training grounds. Thirty minutes later Hayama had filled out the necessary paper work and gotten their first mission. They headed back outside as Naruto and Tomaru were eagerly awaiting what their first mission would be. They walked to a park a few miles away from the Hokage Tower.

"Okay guys … and gal, your first mission is to pick up the litter and place it in these bags" He says handing each of them a stick and a green garbage bag.

"What? What kind of mission is that?" Naruto asked with Tomaru behind him shaking his head in agreement.

"It's the kind they give fresh out of the academy gennin like yourselves" Hayama says.

"Awww … come on sensei can't we get something better than trash pick up. A civilian could do this, so why are we stuck with it?" Tomaru whined with Naruto this time shaking his head rapidly in agreement.

"That's enough you two! Look I know it's crap work, but you are new gennin and as new gennin fresh out of the academy these are the types of missions you receive. I had to do this, the sannin had to do this, even the Hokage back in the day had to do missions like this for awhile before they got to do the cool stuff. Right now your time is supposed to be spent mostly on training, learning new skills, and getting to know each other so you can better your teamwork. I promise if you work hard in a few months I will think about getting us a higher ranking mission okay" Hayama says.

Naruto and Tomaru didn't like it but they nodded in agreement. Fuki had sat back and watched her two teammates and while she didn't want to pick up trash all afternoon she also didn't think they were ready for anything like what Tomaru or Naruto were suggesting. She was hoping to put off the more dangerous missions for as long as possible.

"Okay then get to work! The longer you stand around complaining the longer you don't get to do any of those cool missions" Hayama says knowing it would serve to motivate the boys.

Naruto and Tomaru had already turned to start ready to finish the mission as quickly as they could when a thought popped into Naruto's head. Turning around to face his sensei Naruto noticed both his teammates had stopped to see what he was doing.

"Umm sensei … what are you going to be doing while we are picking up trash?" Naruto asked as he noticed his sensei didn't have a stick or bag in his hand. The other two were also curious now that they noticed the same.

"Me, well I'm going to be sitting right here reading this book while I supervise you three from a safe distance" Hayama says as he sits down on a bench book in hand.

"What that's not fair! Why do we have to do all the work while you get to sit and read a book!" Tomaru shouted.

"Well my little gakuto that's life as a shinobi. Life isn't fair, but cheer up if you ever get your own team one day you can let them do all the work while you sit back and do nothing" Hayama says and then dismisses them as he begins to read his book.

It wasn't that book, but it had a little smut and a decent mystery. He was into the mystery and detective type novels and if they had a little adult material it was all the better, but he didn't actively search for it. He did have an Icha Icha and a few other smut types hidden away at home, but he'd never bring those out in public. I mean what kind of man would he be to read that type of material out in public around his students? A sorry one if you asked him, but he wasn't anyone's moral police so he wouldn't say anything to those that did.

"Hey Naruto, I bet I finish my section faster than you do!" Tomaru shouts.

"Your on pal, loser buys lunch!" Naruto shouts back.

Fuki could only shake her head at her teammates. Tomaru was far to exciteable and a bit of an idiot at times. The past week they had been together Tomaru was always trying to challenge her or Naruto to cement his position as strongest of the group. While she ignored him for the most part Naruto would accept his challenges.

'It could be worse' she thought with a mental sigh before getting to work herself.

Two hours later Team 4 was done with their first D-rank mission and all of them were happy about it. It took so long because in their haste both Naruto and Tomaru would overlook and miss some trash they would have seen if they were being more thorough so they had to go back and do it again and again and a few more times. In the end it was Fuki that won and both boys had to pay for her lunch, which she made very expensive for the purpose of teaching them a lesson.

After they had lunch at a fancy sushi restraunt they went to collect their pay They each went their separate way after receiving their pay. Hayama went to find his girlfriend, Tomaru went home to brag about his first completed mission to his family, and Fuki set off to find Ami and Kasumi. The three of them were a bit of an oddity as despite Ami and Kasumi not becoming full fledged gennin they had managed to keep their friendship. Naruto had no reason to hurry home or any real friends to find so he thought he'd walk around a bit perhaps head back to the training grounds and do a little more training. He was passing a barbecue restraunt when he saw Team 10. Naruto waved to them and kept going to the nearest training ground.

"Who was that?" Ino asked.

"Troublesome, his names Naruto don't you remember he was in our class at the academy" Shikamaru says never taking his eyes off the fading form of Naruto.

Ino just shrugged. "Don't remember" she says before picking at her salad some more.

"What's the matter Shika? *chew* It looks like you don't like the guy" Chōji Akimichi says in between bites.

"It would be too troublesome to explain" Shikamaru says dismissing his friends concern as he to went back to slowly eating his food..

Naruto was kneeling in an unused training ground panting hard from his training. 'That makes five minutes the longest I can keep up my jutsu. It should be long enough to finish most fights I'll get in for awhile, but it's no where near good enough. What have I been doing all these years to only be able to sustain it for five minutes at a time. I should be able to do this for hours by now' Naruto thought.

His training with his bloodline had been hard. The first issue he had was developing moves for his bloodline since he didn't know of anyone else with his particular bloodline. So far all he had come up with was a recreation of something he saw on a cartoon one morning. The second issue was in sustaining the original speed based jutsu as despite all his training it tore at his muscles if he prolonged it for more than five minutes and that really really hurt.

'I either need to find a new way to come at this or find other skills to train in. Perhaps I can ask sensei about finding out what my elemental alignment might be when we meet tomorrow' Naruto thought.

Looking towards the sky Naruto saw it was getting late so he decided to go home and get some rest.

* * *

**Gakuto - student, follower, students and pupils**

**Hello everyone! I hoped you enjoyed the latest chapter of Speed Unlimited. I would like to apologize to everyone whom has taken the time to review. I appreciate each and every one so don't think I'm ignoring you, but until whatever this bug is that's messing up the review reply function is fixed I won't be answering you directly and I'm not the type to do so in an A/N. I again apologize and hope things are fixed soon so that I can respond to all of you once again.**

**So again thanks for reading, sorry for not answering your reviews, and keep reading okay. Until next time dear reader :) For those looking for a good challenge look up Narutoenthusiast, Challenger, or Dracohalo117.  
**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: ****I don't own Naruto or this idea as it is a challenge fic by Narutoenthusiast**

**Chapter**** Six**

The next day Naruto was up before dawn as he prepared for the day ahead. After eating, bathing, and dressing he did his usual ten laps around the village. That took him all of an hour, which made him happy as his normal speed was really improving. Then he used his 'Jinton: Mueishō – Swift Release: Shadowless flight' he did another twenty in two and a half minutes. To anyone watching it would look like he had only taken a couple of steps forward before falling to his knees a few minutes later panting for no reason.

Then after a ten minute break he began exercises designed to build up his strength. Thanks to his Kekkei Genkai he would never be a powerhouse like Might Gai, but that didn't mean he wanted to be a total weakling either. Thanks to all the push-ups, sit-ups, squats, use of regular civilian weights, and swimming, not to forget all the running he did Naruto had a body he was sure most civilians would die for. He was both lean and slightly muscular with the extra definition showing in his abs, pecks, arms, and legs.

After swimming a few last laps around a pond in Training Ground Three Naruto watched as the sun began to rise from between two mountains bathing the area in an orange glow that reminded Naruto of just why orange was his favorite color even if he no longer wore his childhood favorite orange jumpsuit. Naruto still wore orange it just wasn't visible any more as he hid it underneath the blues, greens, blacks, and tans of his everyday clothes or shinobi attire. Looking at the rising sun Naruto relaxed as he floated on his back for a bit before his day would truly start.

An hour later Naruto was in his team's usual training ground Training Ground Twenty-Three. He had arrived a little early to think about how he would go about asking his sensei for information on elemental manipulation. His thoughts were broken as his teammates and sensei came into view. They weren't really surprised to see the whiskered blond already at the Training Grounds, because it happened quite a bit already.

"Alright team, show me how far you have gotten with the tree climbing exercise. If you can make it to the top I might teach you something else before we do another mission" Hayama says.

An hour later Fuki had finally reached the top, but Hayama made her continue going up and down the tree which she did ten times before needing to stop. Naruto had also made it to the top and on Hayama's orders kept going up and down the tree twenty times before Hayama told him to switch up and try it walking on his hands. This had the effect of adding more difficulty as now Naruto had to split his focus between maintaining his chakra and balance at the same time. Tomaru however was still working on completing the exercise. He didn't have Naruto's reserves, actually he had less chakra than Fuki whose reserves were big for a girl her age. His reserves were about average, but it was clear it would take another day or two for him to catch up to Fuki and Naruto.

"Alright guys … and girl" he added feeling Fuki's glare at his back. "Bring it in. That's enough of that for today, but I encourage all of you to work on your chakra control when you are alone. I know I gave each of you a list of exercises, but remember to be careful and not to jump ahead. These might just be chakra control exercises, but even the simple ones can be dangerous if you don't do them right or goof around" Hayama lectures.

All three nodded, but inwardly groaned as he had been telling them that everyday since they started on the Tree Climbing Exercise.

"Alright, Tomaru you still seem to be having trouble with the exercise. If you need some help you can always come to me or ask one of your teammates. I am sure they would both be willing to help you out" Hayama says.

Tomaru looks at both of his squad mates. Fuki gave him a nod and Naruto gave him a thumbs up with a big grin spread across his face which Tomaru returned.

"Thank you sensei, but I'll be alright. I just need a little more practice and I'll have it down cold or I won't be the next Hokage" Tomaru responds confidently.

Hayama had to chuckle at the boy. He certainly got a spirited group and he had no doubts a talented group. It was something that bothered him when he had time to reflect on his groups growth since they began training. Fuki was well on her way to being a solid all around kunoichi. She might never be the next Tsunade, but with time she had the makings of a solid Tokujō perhaps even a full jōnin if she put her mind to it.

Tomaru could be a bit over the top, a dreamer, and had more energy than he knew what to do with at times, but he was a good kid and was willing to listen when you could get him to calm down. He admired how persistent the boy was. It didn't matter if he failed to get something or not because he would keep working hard until he did. Tomaru might never become Hokage, but Hayama was sure the boy was on his way to being a good solid ninja.

Naruto decided now was a good time to ask his question.

"Hayama-sensei, could you teach me elemental manipulation?" Naruto asked.

"That would be so cool, can you sensei!" Tomaru shouted already over his failure to get tree walking.

Hayama looked at his genin and noticed even Fuki look interested in learned how to manipulate her element.

"That's something that's usually reserved for chūnin or those who have been in service for several years" Hayama says.

He then notices the slightly down trodden looks on their faces.

"But … there is nothing that says I can't teach you elemental manipulation …" he was cut off from further speech by an excited Naruto.

"Thank you so much sensei! I promise I'll do my best and listen too everything you say" Naruto says excitedly.

Hayama had to hold in his chuckle at Naruto's display of emotion. The boy was far from an emo, but without Tomaru around he was very … reserved. The only group he had seen as reserved as Naruto had been so far were the Aburame's and he wouldn't admit it, but that clan secretly creeped him out.

"Whoa! Hold up there Naruto. I am not going to teach you guys something as advanced as elemental manipulation yet. It's something that could take years even a decade before you get a complete grasp of it"

"But … you said …"

"I said that there was no rule or law that said I could not teach you elemental manipulation. You are getting ahead of yourself here Naruto. You have only been genin for eight days and you want to jump to something even jōnin find difficult to learn" Hayama says admonishing not only Naruto but all of them.

The looks on their faces told him they got it, but still wanted to learn.

"That said I will give each of you a challenge. If you finish the scroll of chakra control exercises I gave each of you and complete each mission we have without fail … I'll teach you the first stages for manipulating your element and I'll even let you see what element you have right now" Hayama says.

The kids all jumped to attention eager to find out. Naruto was disappointed at not being able to learn it all right now, but he was happy his sensei said he would if they showed him they could handle it and he was going to learn what his element was so maybe he can snag a few low level jutsu to work on in his own time anyway.

"Unfortunately … I don't have the means to test you with me so we'll have to find out tomorrow" Hayama says scratching the back of his head sheepishly.

All three genin groaned at their sensei, but the man just pushed on ignoring the sour looks he was receiving.

"Anyway we still have that mission to get to and remember it all counts towards me teaching you about your elements" Hayama says getting them to focus.

"Hai, sensei" they said in unison.

With that team 4 left the training grounds and went to get their second D-rank mission. This time it was painting an old man's fence. Afterwards Naruto would leave his team and continue his bloodline and other training until it was dark out and he would head home.

This would be the way the next month would pass with little change. During the month all members of Team 4 had managed to complete the Tree Climbing Practice as well the Water Surface Walking Practice. Hayama even had them combine both with the Leaf Concentration Practice they learned at the Academy and when they got that he made them do both while doing battle simulations against against each other for an hour and then him.

In the end he could say without fail Team 4 had mastered all three of the basic chakra control practices, but he made sure they started everyday continuing their practice and even gave them tips on how to enhance all 3 practices individually. This really helped Naruto and Fuki the most as they both had large reserves with Naruto having the most of any genin or chūnin he could recall, but he knew there were jōnin that held less chakra than Naruto.

Tomaru wasn't to be left out though. Thanks to all the practice he did with his team and at home when he could get away from his family his reserves had grown. He now could keep up with his team mates in all of the exercises and still have enough chakra to not be totally drained.

As a reward for their hard work and having successfully completed all 3 practices Hayama began them on the road to Nature Manipulation by showing them what their elements were.

Naruto had a strong affinity to for wind, which surprised Hayama since wind users were rare in Konoha with there only being him and Sarutobi Asuma. However, Naruto also had a strong affinity for water which further surprised Hayama since he knew there were few people with two strong elemental affinities. He wondered if perhaps Naruto might have a kekkei genkai, but decided to hold off on such thinking as he hadn't seen any signs of him having one.

Fuki had an earth nature, which Hayama thought suited the girls personality. It was Tomaru that delivered a second surprise as he also had an affinity for wind although not as strong as Naruto's. Having two wind users on his squad definitely surprised Hayama and made him further believe he made the right decision in passing this team.

With their natures known Hayama taught Fuki and Naruto two jutsu for their elements and Tomaru one. Tomaru was upset, but Hayama explained that the wind's nature was almost exclusively offensive and therefor most of the jutsu he knew of were B-ranked or higher and there was only 1 C-rank he could teach him. Tomaru quieted down after that as at least he was getting to learn a C-rank jutsu and his team mates would also only get one C-rank jutsu and a D-rank.

Naruto after listening to how rare wind element techniques were decided to for now focus on his water nature and come back to wind later. So Hayama gave Naruto two suiton jutsu, **Kirigakure no Jutsu -** Hiding in Mist Technique and **Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu -** Water Clone Technique.

He gave Fuki the **Doton: Shinjū Zanshu no Jutsu -** Earth Release: Double Suicide Decapitation Technique and **Doton: Dochū Eigyo no Jutsu -** Earth Release: Underground Projection Fish Technique. Tomaru received **Fūton: Daitoppa -** Wind Release: Great Breakthrough along with instructions on how to strengthen the technique.

He also made each of them aware that when they became chūnin they would have access to higher ranking techniques in the Shinobi section of the Library, but that he would teach them a C-rank technique if or when he thought they merited it. He actually planned to teach them one more after their first C-rank mission, but he didn't feel the need to tell them that as he knew they would then beg to go on one sooner than he felt they were ready for.

As it was he felt they were close and would wait a few more weeks before asking for one.

* * *

**Hello everyone! I hoped you enjoyed the latest chapter of Speed Unlimited. Next chapter will be Team 4's first C-rank and sorry, but it won't be Wave. **

******So again thanks for reading, sorry if I don't reply to your review for a bit. I'm trying to update a number of my stories. So, until next time dear reader :) **

******And For those looking for a good challenge look up Narutoenthusiast, Challenger, or Dracohalo117.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: ****I don't own Naruto or this idea as it is a challenge fic by Narutoenthusiast**

**Chapter 7 - A Hunt**

Two weeks after Team 4 began working on elemental techniques Hayama deemed them ready for their first C-rank mission. He wouldn't pick anything too difficult for his team but rather something to ease them into the danger of being a shinobi. After completing their morning practices and exercises Hayama took them to the Academy building to get their mission.

Walking into the administrative side they went to the Mission Assignment Desk to report in. They found the Hokage along with five chūnin and Umino Iruka Team 4's former academy instructor handing a mission to an older team of shinobi. When they were done Team 4 stepped up.

"Team 4 reporting in for a C-rank mission Hokage-sama" Hayama says.

"Ahh, Shirakumo-san, so you believe they are ready for the first serious mission then?" the Sandiame asks.

"Yes Hokage-sama, I was thinking a hunting mission perhaps. It would allow my team to ease into taking more difficult missions mixed in with the occasional D-rank" Hayama responds.

"Okay … I think there is something here that would work for your team. Iruka if you would find the scroll for the Nara mission request?" the Hokage directs the chūnin.

Iruka nods and digs through the pile of scrolls and finds the one he was looking for. He hands it to the Hokage who thanks the young man and then tosses the scroll to Hayama.

"I hope that mission will suffice" and he receives a nod "Goro-san please mark down Team 4 as having received the Nara mission" the Hokage orders.

The chūnin on his left opened a book with mission records and recorded the information. When it was done he closed the book back up and nodded to the elderly leader.

"May your mission be successful Team 4" the Hokage says dismissing them.

"Thank you Hokage-sama" all of Team 4 intones as they bowed and left.

None noticed the gaze the old man held on one particular member of the group. As Team 4 were leaving they bumped into another team of genin and their sensei also coming to collect a mission.

"Hey there Asuma. I didn't think you knew how to get out of bed before noon" Hayama joked with Team 10's sensei.

"Hahaha, real funny Hayama. You know how it is with missions around here. The good ones are all gone by then unless your lucky and knowing my luck we'd be stuck having to chase the Daimiyo's wife cat around all day" Asuma responds.

"I don't understand why Lady Shijimi doesn't just buy a new cat that will put up with her … loving ways" Hayama says.

"You don't have to tell me man. I remember the Daimyo asking her the same thing about that damn cat's predecessor and well he never asked again after the tongue lashing she gave him. The man is completely whipped by that woman … I don't really understand it myself" Asuma says after rubbing his beard a bit in thought.

"Talk like that some more and I'm sure you'll find out. Especially if you ever finally land red eyes and get her to give the old man another potential successor" Hayama responds with a grin.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah … your just jealous because she would never give you the time of day Hayama" Asuma retorts.

"I respect Yūhi-san as a fellow Konoha shinobi and comrade, but she's not my type" Hayama says quickly.

"Oh that's right … you prefer the domestic type … speaking of which, how is Kaede-san?" Asuma asked with a smirk as Hayama sputtered out a response.

While the two jōnin were talking the genin decided to catch up a little as well.

"Hey Chōji, Shika, and Ino! What are you guys doing here? Tomaru asked excitedly.

"Getting a mission …" Shikamaru responded although his eyes never left Naruto.

"What mission did you guys get?" Ino asked fishing for information.

"Sensei's allowing us to take our first C-rank mission because we're so awesome!" Tomaru boasts.

"What no way! Even Sasuke-kun hasn't gone on a C-rank yet!" Ino shouted.

"I guess that shows just how awesome we are, right guys" Tomaru says looking at his two team mates.

Fuki just shrugged him off while Naruto looked on non-committal about the whole thing.

"See, I knew you were lying Tomaru. You'll never be better at anything than Sasuke-kun!" Ino yelled at the boy.

"Guys back me up here" "come on please" "Naruto just tell her how sensei said how strong we were getting the other day" "Please bro … help me out here. Ino-chan is so beautiful and fun" "If she knew how much better I am now I'm sure I could get her to go out with me" Tomaru pleaded.

"*Sigh* Fine, yes sensei said that Tomaru here has improved the most out of all of us and is well on his way to achieving his dream" Naruto says shocking the gossip queen.

"And …"

"And we have been given a C-rank to complete a mission requested by the Nara" Naruto finishes.

Tomaru quickly flashes a grin "See I told you so … say Ino-chan, how would you like to go out with me sometime" Tomaru asked.

"No way, loser I'd never go out with you or anyone other than Sasuke-kun!" Ino shouted.

"What?" "Why not?" Tomaru asked.

"Because he's the only man worthy of my love and devotion" Ino says dreamily as her thoughts drift to the Uchiha.

While those two were busy with their drama and with Fuki not caring about anything that was going on at the moment. Although Naruto could see she was watching the drama between Tomaru and Ino out of the corner of her eye.

'I thought she was an Uchiha fan girl as well. I'm surprised she's not fighting with Ino over it, but now that I think about it … that was mostly Ino and that pink haired girl … Sakura I think her name was' Naruto thought before he was broken from them.

"What did your mission request say?" Shikamaru suddenly asked.

Naruto shrugged, "Haven't red it yet. I'm sure sensei will tell us before or when we get there".

"I am unaware of any mission request being sent by my clan that would require anything above a D-rank" Shikamaru says.

Once again all Naruto could do was shrug. He then looked over at the last member of Team 10.

"You are Akimichi Chōji, right?" Naruto asked.

The Akimichi boy shook his head yes.

"Your clans own most of the restaurants in the village right?" Naruto asked.

Once again the pudgy genin nodded as he continued to eat his potato chips.

"I have a little extra money on me and was thinking of spending it on a nice meal. Where would you recommend I got?" Naruto asked.

At this Chōji stopped eating and gave Naruto a penetrating stare as if he was trying to look into his soul before his face softened.

"Depends, are you going by yourself or do you have a date?" the Akimichi boy asked.

"Umm … myself" Naruto answers.

"Fancy, exotic, or standard?"

" … standard I guess"

"Quality or Quantity?"

"Well quality, but I'd like to have both if possible" Naruto responds.

"Are you a meat eater, leaf muncher, or varied?"

"Varied, but I prefer meat"

"Then I recommend … Yakiniku Q, it's a Korean Gyū-Kaku-style yakiniku restaurant. We go there all the time!" the pudgy genin says happily with a large smile.

"Oh … I think I've seen that place. Actually I think I say you three there one day when I was going to train after our sensei let us off for the day" Naruto says.

"Yeah … I remember" Chōji says and then looks at Shikamaru.

Shikamaru at this point had turned away from everyone and seemed to be in his own world, but Chōji could tell his best friend was still looking on intently at the blond kid in front of him.

"Say … you wouldn't want to hang out some day and try a few restaurants. It feels a little weird going to eat some place by yourself you know?" Naruto asked.

"Sure, any time" Chōji responds.

"Cool, as thanks first plate of ribs are on me" Naruto says.

This of course was all he needed to say for Chōji to deem him as a cool guy and friend. Shikamaru could already feel his best friend leaving him for this … this … overachiever. He couldn't let that happen, but he was saved by Team 4's sensei.

"Hey you three, let's go we have a mission to complete. Say goodbye to your friends. I'll talk to you later Asuma" Hayama said as he started to walk away.

"Sure, see you at the jōnin lounge" Asuma said with a wave "and say hello to Kaede-chan for me" Asuma called.

Hayama stiffened slightly before calling to his team "hurry up you three" and moving even quicker to leave the building.

"See you Sunday Chōji. Bye Yamanaka-san, Nara-san, Sarutobi-san" Naruto says before leaving.

"Come on Ino-chan, just one date … please" Tomaru begged.

"No! Stop begging it's pathetic" she said before stomping off not acknowledging the rest of Team 4.

"Come on Tomaru, blonde said no and we have a mission" Fuki tries.

"B-b-but …"

"No buts, let's go" and with that Fuki dragged the boy out to join the rest of her team.

"Bye Naruto, see you Saturday!" Chōji says excitedly with a wave.

"Heh, weird team" Asuma comments before moving to get his teams mission.

"Tomaru is such a pest. I don't know how Fuki puts up with him" Ino says loudly before following Asuma.

"I don't know … at least Naruto's cool and Fuki didn't seem as bad as she used to be" Chōji says before following his sensei and blond teammate.

Shikamaru just stood at the door way watching Team 4 walk away. He hadn't said anything as it would have just been too troublesome, but he wasn't happy.

'Damn that Naruto. First he's all attentive and energetic and now he's trying to get to Chōji. He probably wants to make him train and work out and … do stuff. Not on my watch Uzumaki, not on my watch. I won't let you corrupt my best friend and turn him into one of you. Even if I have to get up on Sunday to do it … between naps' the Nara thought.

Naruto and Team 4 made it to the Nara compound. It took them a minute to find someone willing to help them. They found most of the Nara men unable or unwilling to move enough to assist them with their mission or even explain what was going on. To their great relief they bumped into Shikamaru's mother as she was coming from the market.

After Team 4 helped her put her things away she led them to the Nara Forests where there mission would take place.

"Normally my husband or one of the clansmen tasked with caring for the deer here would explain the mission to you, but as you saw they are all … they're just too lazy to actually go and request a mission, the lazy bastards" she says angrily.

Team 4 tries not to laugh at the poor woman's misfortune, but only managed to keep it to a snicker.

"Sounds like the chief alright" Hayama remarks.

"*Sighs* Yes it does. I requested a team, because the last two mornings their have been deer carcasses found near the edge of the woods. We suspect it maybe a pack of wolves or maybe a tiger or something preying on the dear. It shouldn't be too difficult, but no one here was willing to stay up tonight to watch for whatever is doing this and stop it. Will your team be able to handle it" Yoshino Nara asks.

"It shouldn't be a problem. This is their first C-rank, but I'll be with them in case it's something unexpected or they have trouble Nara-san" Hayama responds.

"Okay I'll trust you to do your jobs them. Please be mindful of the deer and try not to use many destructive jutsu in the forest. The deer here aren't skittish, but we depend on them staying on these lands" Yoshino informs them.

"We'll do our best Nara-san, hopefully it won't be necessary" Hayama responds.

"I'll leave you too it then, thank you for your service" Yoshino says before leaving.

"Alright, we are going to set up camp in the middle of the forest so that way if anything happens we won't be too far away" Hayama orders them.

Team 4 moved deeper into the forest finding what Hayama deemed as the middle some time afternoon where the team then set up camp. Thankfully not knowing if the mission would be inside or outside of Konoha the team had packed for either situation and each had their own tent with enough supplies to last a week. Once the team had unpacked and set up their tents Hayama unsealed some precooked meat and they all ate sandwiches.

After they had all finished eating Hayama addressed his genin.

"Alright, this is a hunting mission a standard C-rank mission given to chūnin or experienced genin, but I figured you guys could handle it. This will serve to introduce you to the real world of the shinobi. The part hidden from most civilians the dark and bloody sometimes brutal world we ninja operate in. I don't know if any of you have an experience with hunting, but our mission is to eliminate whatever is killing the Nara deer at night. Can you handle it?" Hayama asked them.

Naruto immediately nodded as he was used to hunting for food at times. Fuki took a bit of time but she also nodded. She had never hunted before, but she was sure she could do it. Tomaru also quickly nodded. Like Fuki he had never hunted, but he was also sure he could do it.

'After all, it's not like we'll be killing a human' they all thought.

It was sad, but hunting animals for food and some times sport was natural. This wouldn't be for sport or food, but to protect another group of animals valuable to their community. They could do this.

Hayama nodded expecting them to want to continue if no other reason that complete their first slightly high profile mission.

"Okay then, whatever is doing this is doing it at night so for now rest up and be prepared to stay up very late tonight. If you need to catch a nap in your tent for a few hours, any questions or comments?" He asked them.

"Umm … sensei, what if we have to use the bathroom?" Tomaru asked.

"Then go into the woods far away from the camp site, dig a trench and go if you have to squat, and remember to bury it before you leave. If it's dark then take a flashlight with you and be mindful of the deer"

"Hai, sensei … but what do we use for toilet paper?" Tomaru responded.

"Then use leaves or a flat rock. I know this has the potential to be your first overnight mission, but you guys really should have learned all of this in survival training"Hayama says.

"Sorry sensei"

"It's okay Tomaru. I would prefer you ask these things instead of not asking and jeopardizing a mission or getting yourself hurt" Hayama responds.

Tomaru nodded, but he could tell the other two had been listening as well.

"Anything else?" He asked.

He received three head shakes.

"Okay then, be ready at sun down and until then relax a bit" Hayama says before walking into his tent to rest a bit.

The three genin followed their leaders example and also headed for their own individual tents. It just so happened Naruto was the first to crack and need to use the was as he was finishing up covering the small trench with dirt and unused leaves that he got the feeling he was being watched.

He stood and turned his body a full 360 degrees to try and find any movement in the brush. Unfortunately there were too many trees and shrubbery not to mention it was dusk now so the available light was diming. Naruto reached down into his kunai pouch secured to the waist of his pants as he stood turning slowly.

He turned sharply to his left to find nothing, but the rustle of a few leaves. He relaxed as the tension was slowly overwhelming him. But the feeling of being watched wasn't leaving him and deciding he had enough Naruto slowly made his way back towards the campsite.

When he did he met the eye of a deer that was standing in front of him.

"Oh, hey Mr. Deer. Was it you that was watching me?" Naruto asked feeling silly for getting so spooked.

Of course the deer didn't respond making him feel even dumber. He went to put away the kunai when he saw a bit of panic in the deer's eyes and turned to find an impossibly large tiger bearing down on him. It gave off a loud deafening roar causing the deer to run and birds to rise into the sky causing more noise as they squawked and screeched into the darkening sky.

Acting on reflex Naruto used his Jinton release to move from his spot as the Tiger barreled through the area he was just occupying. His movement was so instantaneous the tiger didn't have time to react before Naruto flung his kunai at the over sized beast hitting it dead in the neck. The tiger could do little more than collapse as it suffocated on it's own blood.

Naruto stood watching a little detached as he watched the beast die. It wasn't until his team showed up that he snapped out of it.

"Naruto! Are you alright?" Hayama asked.

"Y-yeah … I'm alright sensei" Naruto slowly responded.

"What happened here?" Hayama asked.

"I … don't know. I was just finishing up after defecating when I felt something watching me. I thought it was a deer that had some how gotten behind me when I sensed it panic and turned to find this tiger attacking me from my blindside. I managed to move out of the way and out of reflex through a kunai I was holding at it when it collapsed" Naruto answered.

Hayama turned to look at the tiger again.

"I'm glad your alright Naruto. It seems like some how this thing escaped from Training Ground 44 where the giant tigers are kept locked in" Hayama informs them.

'Damn, I bet it was Anko. She probably forgot to lock the gate behind her after her latest visit to that place. She can be so clueless sometimes. How many times does the Hokage have to warn her about the standard safety protocols in place about that area. I don't understand why he allows her such leeway with that place anyway …' Hayama goes onto rant in his mind.

"Giant Tigers!" Tomaru shouted "… why would Konoha have a place that has giant tigers?" he asked shakily.

He received no answer. Fuki stood beside Naruto watching him and then glancing at the tiger wondering how he managed to kill it so quickly. They had run here as soon as they heard the roar thinking the beast had come back before dark to kill more deer. Imagine their surprise when they see their teammate standing next to a giant tiger corpse laying in a large pool of apparently it's own blood.

Hayama checked to make sure it was dead then sealed it in a scroll. It wasn't common knowledge, but some people thought certain tiger body parts held medicinal or other value. He was sure the Nara would be interested in it's corpse.

"Alright team, it seems like our mission might have been completed but just in case there are more of them we'll continue with the stakeout as planned …"

Meanwhile, at the Nara residence Nara Shikamaru had just come home after spending the afternoon hanging with Chōji trying to get him to forget meeting up with the blond Uzumaki. He had no luck as the Akmichi seemed excited about spending Sunday with his nemesis. He had even decided to come home a little early after his last failure at getting Chōji to change his mind, something that rarely happened.

"Hey mom … I'm home" Shikamaru called out quietly hoping she wouldn't hear him.

"Welcome home Shika, I'm in the kitchen come sit down and talk to me" Nara Yoshino called to her son.

"… troublesome" Shikamaru says.

"What was that?" Yoshino called.

"Coming mom" Shikamaru quickly responded.

Shikamaru sat and pretended to listen as his mom prattled on about this, that, and nothing he cared about.

"Shika … Shikamaru … Nara Shikamaru! Are you listening to me!" Yoshino shouted.

"Yeah mom, I'm listening" Shika responded.

"Then what did I just say?" she asked angrily.

"…" Shika found it best not to even try lying.

"I thought so. *Sigh* Why can't you be like that nice Uzumaki boy" she scolds.

This instantly caught his attention as he focused in on his mother, which creeped her out a bit at the unusual intensity at which he was looking at her.

"Did you say Uzumaki … as in Uzumaki Naruto?" he asked.

"Yes, he was here to do the mission I requested a team for and no one here would get off their butt long enough to help them. I had some groceries with me and Naruto-kun asked if I needed any help. I tried to tell him I was okay, but he insisted he should help me. He was such a kind young man and even asked me questions about my day and what I do. We talked a bit as he and his team helped me put everything away and when I led them to the forest to tell them about the mission"

Shikamaru for a brief second flashed red as he squeezed his fists feeling like he wanted to punch something or someone.

"You should get to know him. That young man has a good head on his shoulders and he was so polite. Honestly you could really stand to be a little more like him Shika …"

At this point Shikamaru turned and walked away ignoring his mother calling for him to come back.

'Damn you Uzumaki, even in my own home I can't escape you now. That's it, this requires … action' Shikamaru thought as he grinned darkly.

In the morning Team 4 went to the Nara clan heads house to report in. Team 4 had stayed up all night watching over the deer and occasionally checking the forest for more tigers, but when the sun came up there was nothing extra to report. When they consulted the Nara about what happened they were surprised to find they had suspected all along it was tiger that some how escaped Training Ground 44. The mission was stamped complete and they went back to the assignment desk and turned in their report and received their pay.

Hayama in the report gave Naruto extra credit for actually killing the beast along with the bonus they received from the Naruto whom were indeed interested in harvesting the carcass of the tiger. With that done Team 4 went their separate ways with Hayama giving them the day off.

As Naruto walked home to get some more rest before he would do more training later in the day he thought back on the mission. He swore that even throughout the night he kept feeling as though something was periodically watching him. It was weird and unnerving, but it had stopped as soon as they left the Nara compound so he shrugged it off as nothing important.

Unknown to Naruto he had indeed been watched or stalked all night and was still being stalked. The tiger had not been the actual predator preying on the Nara deer. The tiger that attacked him when it did had unintentionally given the predator that had been preying on the deer an alibi. It would avoid the deer for now as it didn't want to draw any attention to itself just yet. Besides, there were other easier creatures to hunt if it needed to.

But now it was on the scent of another kind of prey. A very interesting creature from what it saw in the forest. If what he saw was real the perhaps it's own mission was finally over. It stood watching the boy walk home and planned on how to test it's quarry soon, very soon.

* * *

**Hello everyone! I hoped you enjoyed the latest chapter of Speed Unlimited. Next chapter Naruto will meet his first summon creature. This update came a bit quicker than expected so it may be awhile before I focus back on this story.**

**To make up for that I am releasing my latest brainchild soon. It's my first official crossover fic. It's based in the Naruto world, but most of it takes place after the time skip.  
**

******I will be responding soon to all of your reviews, so I hope they were favorable. I'm trying to update a number of my stories and hope fans of those won't feel slighted or unappreciated. **

******For those looking for a good challenge look up Narutoenthusiast, Challenger, or Dracohalo117.**

**************Until next time dear reader :) **


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer - I do not own Naruto nor this story Idea  
**

**Chapter Eight**

It was Monday. Naruto did indeed meet up with Chōji on Sunday as they talked about. Surprisingly Shikamaru also decided to tag along. Naruto wasn't sure, but he was getting the distinct impression that the Nara heir didn't like him.

Aside from Shikamaru the Akamichi and Uzumaki got along famously. They hit up three different eateries Yakiniku Q, Ichiraku Ramen, and Amaguriama. All in all even with the sour Nara tag along it was a nice afternoon. He and Chōji had even made plans to hang out again in a few weeks if their teams weren't on missions.

Speaking of missions Team 4 was back to lame D-ranks. Of course Naruto hadn't expected to completely ditch doing D-ranks. They were simple missions and the money didn't hurt. Still he had hoped they would get another C-rank after completing the first one in only one night.

Hayama did promise they would take another C-rank at the end of the week. Until then it was back to focusing on his training and D-ranks. He had already completed the first step of water manipulation by drawing water from a leaf, but Hayama informed him that he should try to draw water from different objects before moving to the second step. Naruto was proud to say that so far he had gotten further in chakra manipulation than his two teammates, but they were making progress and would get it in time.

Hayama though knew how tough an exercise it was and only allowed them thirty minutes every two days of team practice time to work on it insisting they should focus on their more basic skills instead for the time being until they gained more experience. Naruto had mostly gotten so far, because he made sure to do an hour everyday either in the morning when there was still morning dew on the ground or in the afternoon.

It was now after team training and they had just completed their mission for the day. They pulled weeds and planted flowers. Naruto was admittedly surprised to find out that Fuki liked to garden. When he told her he also liked to garden a little, but wasn't very good at it they began talking about their own little gardens despite Naruto not actually owning a garden and more of a few potted plants he watered.

He actually told Fuki his dream was to some day own a large house with a huge backyard so that he can have his own garden and training space. They didn't get to far, because Tomaru butted in telling them about how he also wanted a big house to call his own, because he was tired of sharing his space with all his brothers and sisters.

Hayama just smiled watching his team getting along and working together. He was admittedly worried when he picked his team about their dynamics. He knew Fuki used to be a bully and Tomaru was a bit of goof not to mention loud. He didn't know what to make of Naruto initially and didn't think this team would pass his test, but he was glad they did. Hayama couldn't imagine a better team and he was looking forward to the monthly meeting with the other jōnin where he would rub in how well his team was doing.

Hours later Naruto was alone and heading back to his team's training ground to do some afternoon training. He wanted to work some more on his elemental manipulation and kenjutsu along with his afternoon exercises. So the first thing he decided to do was his laps.

Unknown to Naruto watching him from a suitable distance was the creature that had killed the Nara deer. It had stalked him since that night gathering information and finding out his capabilities. Now it was ready to make its move.

After completing 10 laps Naruto positioned his hands in the familiar boar hand seal and took off mentally intoning 'Jinton: Mueishō : Swift Release: Shadowless Flight'. That is when the creature also took off at speeds that made it look like a streak of lightning, which for those crossing it's path shocked them greatly.

It brought up memories of the Yondiame to most witnessing the impromptu race, which they didn't know was a race. For they couldn't see Naruto at all almost like he was invisible when he used the technique. The creature despite moving at speeds close to the speed of light wasn't and was giving quite the show especially to passing shinobi including a certain green spandex wearing tiajutsu duo that tried to enter the race. They were quickly lost and then lapped almost instantly making them remove their weights and release a few gates in an attempt to keep up with whatever was moving so fast.

Lee was quickly dropped in the race finding it impossible to keep up at the speed his sensei was moving at to get close to whatever it was. He tried to call out to Gai, but even his voice failed him as he lay face down on the ground. Gai himself wasn't fairing much better than Lee. He prided himself on his speed, stamina, and endurance but at the rate whatever in front of him was traveling he couldn't' keep up.

'It can't be human' the tiring jōnin thought.

He had already been lapped by the creature several times and he had released his weights a minute ago. He just couldn't keep going like this. Even his chakra was starting to fail him. He finally collapsed after being passed several more times.

"I have failed you, my precious Lee-kun! Youth wasn't enough!" the man shouted.

Strangely he had crumpled right beside his student who was also lamenting his failure … loudly.

It took several more minutes for Naruto to come to a stop, but just as he did he was tackled from behind sending him flying forwardly awkwardly as he tried to gather himself. Before he could though he was slammed into again and knocked across the ground in a different direction.

This happened several more times as he felt clawed scratches and bite marks pierce his skin. And they were getting close to vital areas like his neck and groin. Changing tactics use his hands to spring up from the ground. This forced the creature to leap at him, which also slowed it down.

Quickly forming the tiger hand seal Naruto created a Mizu Bunshin to take the attack for him and then quickly flashed the boar hand seal to appear on the other side of the clearing. When the beast killed the water clone it landed on the now wet ground facing Naruto.

Now that they were both standing still Naruto was able to get a good look at the animal. He'd never seen anything like it though. It was a little taller at the shoulder then even the biggest of the Inuzuka dogs he had seen, but it was really thin, with a golden spotted coat, short muzzle, elongated back, short but deadly looking canine teeth, deep chest, narrow waist, and a long heavy looking tail. Naruto had seen when it attacked that the tail was used like some sort of rudder at times when it needed to turn sharply. In short it was a beautiful, tall, thin cat.

"What are you?" Naruto asked out loud.

He did not know why he said that out loud. He certainly didn't expect it to answer him.

"I am what humans used to call a cheetah" the cat answered.

"A cheetah, are you a summon animal?" Naruto asked.

"Yes, but how did you know?" it replied.

"Well this village is sort of famous for bloodlines and it's many summon contracts. I've never heard of a cheetah summoning contract though" Naruto says.

"I would be surprised if you had, then again I'm surprised you are not jumping around like an idiot because I can talk" the cheetah responds.

"Why are you attacking me?" Naruto asked shrugging off the comment.

"I'm not attacking you. I am testing you to see if you are worthy enough to become the first summoner of my clan" the cat says.

That was interesting. He would be the first to have this new contract and no one knew about it. It was perfect … too perfect.

"Why are you testing me? I'm sure there are other much stronger ninja out there that would suit your clan" Naruto asks.

"Perhaps, but you are the first I have come across that fits the main requirement the chief told me to find in a summoner" it replies.

"That is …" Naruto asks.

"To be faster than the speed of light. You are the first I have found that can out run me at top speed" the cat answers.

"Well, did I pass?" Naruto asks.

"You did" the cheetah answers.

"Now what?" Naruto asks.

In response the creature relaxed its stance and started hacking like it was trying to cough up a fur ball or something. It was kind of disgusting. When it finally coughed up a large scroll Naruto really didn't want to go near it, but reluctantly walked over as the summons used its paw to unravel the large roll of parchment.

"Prick your finger to gather some blood and then use it to write your name on the first line" it directed.

Naruto did as told using a kunai to puncture three fingers on his right hand.

"Now prick your hand and gather blood so you can form a hand print and then place it next to your signature" the cheetah says.

Naruto does as the summons says. When he's done he looks at the scroll and taken in that he is indeed the first one to have the contract.

"Is that it?" Naruto asked.

"That's it. I'm glad I found you Uzumaki-san. It took a long time before I found you and I am ready to go back home" the cat remarks.

"Wait, how do I summon you guys?" Naruto asks.

"To summon us prick the hand you used to sign the contract again to create an offer of blood, then do the hand seals Boar - Dog - Bird - Monkey - Ram to mold your chakra correctly, and finally place the hand you used to sign the contract on the area you wish to summon us. The amount of chakra you use will determine the power of the summon" the cheetah informs him.

"How do I summon you? Naruto asked.

"I can't tell you that Uzumaki-san as you are our first summoner we will be learning as much as you do about the process. I suggest start off using a low amount of chakra and then gradually build up until you summon me. I warn you though that some of my kind can be … skittish and might run away or attack before you can talk to them" it tells him.

"Thank you for explaining that to me and the warning" Naruto replies.

"It's fine, do you need anything else?" the cheetah summons asks.

"No, but can you tell me your name before you leave?" Naruto asks.

The cheetah looks at Naruto questioningly for a few second and answers.

"My name is Saburo, I look forward to working with you in the future Uzumaki-san" the summons says before disappearing.

Naruto stood in the clearing for a few moments digesting what just happened to him when he broke out in broad smile.

"I have a summoning contract, I have a summoning contract" Naruto says to himself.

This was big stuff. As far as he knew only jōnin or experienced chūnin were able to summon. He had never heard of a genin summoner although it was possible there were others. He felt like trying it out right away, but remembered he still had his elemental exercise to work on first not to mention his chakra control exercises, weapon training, taijutsu training, and he wanted to practice the ninjutsu he knew as well before heading home to rest.

Looking at his shirt and pants he could also see he would need to replace or repair those as well. They were riddled with claw marks and teeth holes from where he was scratched and bit. He was just glad Saburo didn't have larger teeth.

Deciding to work on his summoning technique later he got back to work starting with his tiajutsu training. If only he knew a jutsu that could create multiply copies of himself to cut down on the work load.

Three days later

Team 4 stood at their designated training ground ready for instruction. Hayama decided today would be a heavy training day so no missions. So far they had reviewed the three basic chakra control exercises including battle simulations on trees and water for an hour. Then they worked more on their elemental manipulation. And after that they all practiced kenjutsu something that had been neglected of late during team training, but it showed that the kids had worked on it in their own time after practice as Hayama could see definite improvement.

Lastly he had them review their taijutsu and genjutsu before giving them a break. This time it was Tomaru's choice and he had a massive sweet tooth so they went to the Dango Shop. When they entered the genin noted Hayama was acting suspiciously like he didn't want to go in the shop, but upon entering he relaxed.

Naruto had the Nikudango, which was a type of meatball and a bowl of anmitsu for dessert. Tomaru ordered the Goma style dango with a side order of Chichi dango. Fuki had the Hanami style dango and a bowl of anmitsu while Hayama had the Chadango or green-tea flavored dango and a bowl of anmitsu.

Now that they were rested and full Hayama decided to teach them something new.

"What I am going to show you now is a technique called Chakra Flow. The Chakra Flow technique refers to both the flowing of chakra through an object as well as any technique that increases the potency of a weapon by flowing chakra through it. There are some techniques that use Chakra Flow to enhance the body as well, but that is very advanced stuff that you shouldn't try until you master your element.

Now, watch how I use the Chakra Flow technique to enhance the sharpness and piercing ability of this kunai" Hayama says.

The three genin watch as Hayama takes out a kunai and pushes his chakra through it converting it into wind nature. Each genin noted there was a noticeable hum coming from the technique as it enveloped the kunai. When Hayama-sensei threw the weapon the genin were practically in awe as it not only punched a huge hole through one tree but several.

"Whoa! You've got to teach me that sensei!" Tomaru shouted.

Despite the volume of their teammate Naruto and Fuki couldn't help but be equally excited.

"Now calm down. Tomaru this technique is perfect for wind users, but Fuki and Naruto each element reacts differently to the use of this technique. I know that for Earth users like Fuki the technique hardens weapons or the body. Iwa in particular uses Chakra Flow to harden their bodies until they are as hard as steel, but the same can be done for weapons making it an ultimate defensive technique.

Unfortunately Naruto I don't know what effect this may have with water nature as none has been noted before. However, you also have wind nature like me and Tomaru. You could practice the technique using your wind nature, but without completing the Leaf Cutting exercise with your wind chakra it will be very difficult for you" Hayama instructs.

Naruto nodded at the information.

"I'll begin working on the Leaf Cutting exercise first sensei, but if you could also give me the second step of water manipulation I would like that as well sensei" Naruto asks.

"Alright why don't you go over to that tree and gather some leaves to begin practicing with while I start Tomaru and Fuki on the Chakra Flow Technique" Hayama orders.

Naruto nods and heads off to begin practicing. It was half an hour later before Hayama caught up with him. When Hayama looked at Naruto's progress he noted that he had already managed to produce notable cuts on the sides of the leaf.

"Good job Naruto-kun, it looks like it won't take you long to get this down either" Hayama praises.

"Thank you sensei, for some reason this feels a lot easier than when I worked on the first stage of water manipulation" Naruto says.

Hayama nodded at the information. It would seem Naruto had a more powerful connection to the wind than he initially thought.

"Do you want me to give you the second step to water manipulation or do you want to continue working on leaf cutting?" Hayama asks.

In response Naruto stops what he is doing and sets the pile of leaves aside as he stands up.

"The second step of water manipulation as I understand it is to manipulate the flow of water in a lake by making it turn clock wise around you creating a whirlpool" Hayama informs the young teen.

"Thank you sensei. I think I'll continue to work on the Leaf Cutting exercise first before trying it" Naruto says.

Hayama nodded and says, "Alright, if you need my help I'll be with Tomaru and Fuki, but before I go I wanted to give you this. It's a scroll on a C-rank water technique called Suiton: Mizurappa. It is considered a basic technique of water manipulation and very versatile having many variations. The hand seals are Dragon - Tiger - Hare" Hayama directs.

Naruto takes the scroll and thanks his sensei again before going back to work on the Leaf Cutting Exercise. He really wanted to learn the Chakra Flow Technique as it was obviously very powerful, practical, and useful. He also wanted to try it with his water release.

Several days later Team 4 was still working on learning Chakra Flow. Naruto had gotten the hang of the Leaf Cutting exercise in record time finishing it that night after Hayama had released them from training. He showed his sensei the next day and began working with Tomaru on using his wind nature to enhance the piercing and cutting power of a kunai. Fuki was also working hard on strengthening a kunai with her earth nature chakra. This was made more difficult by Hayama not knowing how to help her although he was able to ask another jōnin friend of his for tips that would help her.

By Friday afternoon each genin could coat a kunai with their chakra, but were still working on prolonging and strengthening the effects of using Chakra Flow. Naruto and Tomaru as usual were competing fiercely against each other but Hayama made sure to keep their competition friendly and productive. He reminded all of them that this was something most shinobi didn't try until after they became chūnin if not jōnin.

Naruto had also started on the second water manipulation technique, but now that he was splitting his time between both wind manipulation and water his progress had slowed some. It also made it hard to work on his other training most notably in extending his usage of his bloodline technique. The odd thing was the better his wind manipulation became the more … explosive he felt when using it in his take off.

He had also slacked off some on his summon training not that he minded. He was having trouble summoning something other than cubs. A couple of times he got what he learned were termed sibling groups. Young cheetah's considered old enough to be on their own, but would stay with their siblings for a while until striking out on their own. He also learned that even the cheetah's that didn't talk were very vocal and expressive with a somewhat complex method of communication that gave them a great social system despite some times living far distances from one another.

Unfortunately all this training meant he had little time for anything else including friends. If it wasn't during team time he would often disappear before Tomaru or Fuki had a chance to ask him anything. His behavior was a bit alarming to his sensei, but he saw how hard the blond worked during team training so he figured he was probably doing some on his own time.

Hayama decided he would look into though if it continued too much longer. He didn't want the kid to burn out like so many talented kids before him. Burn out was an especially troublesome issue for ninja's.

That could wait, because now Team 4 was standing in front of the Hokage ready to receive their second C-rank mission.

"Shirokuma-san, I hear you are requesting another C-rank for your team" the Hokage asks.

"Yes Hokage-sama, thanks to Naruto the last one ended before it could really begin and I don't feel they got enough experience. I was hoping we could receive another one close to the village" Hayama replies.

"Hmm, Iruka do we have a C-rank mission available that is near the village?" he asked.

"No Hokage-sama, most of the C-ranks have already been distributed to the more experienced genin teams. There are three available. One is a protection mission to wave, another is a bandit elimination near Tanzaku Gai, and the last … hmmm actually this is near by just half a mile or so outside the village. A family is being terrorized by a large bear and they are requesting a team to kill it" Iruka says.

"We'll take the last one" Hayama says.

"Very well, here's the mission request scroll. Good luck on your mission Team 4" The Hokage says.

Team 4 bows to the elderly leader and then leaves passing by a drunk old man who really reeked of booze even to Fuki and Tomaru whose noses were the least sensitive. Team 4 quickly took their leave glad to get away from the drunk and pitied the team that got saddled with that old man.

**Two days later**

Team 4 was once again returning from a successful and quick mission. Hayama basically stood and watched as his genin made short work of the rogue bear. Funny thing was it turned out to be a summons and they chose Fuki, whom incapacitated the bear with an earth chakra infused punch to its head, to be their new summoner.

Hayama couldn't be prouder of his team with how fast they were progressing. Actually it was starting to become a little ridiculous. He now had a genin summoner, something that hadn't happened since the Sannin. He heard the Chūnin Exam was being held in Konoha this year. He was strongly considering nominating his team, but he really wanted them to wait a full year before reaching for a promotion.

Meanwhile, the genin were talking among themselves. More accurately Tomaru was pestering Fuki about how come the bears chose her. Of course Fuki didn't answer him and merely smirked at his frustration. She proudly displayed the summoning tattoo on her bicep that she received from the bear that was the holder of the contract.

Not getting what he wanted from Fuki Tomaru turned to Naruto hoping he would share in his frustration.

"Can you believe those stupid bears chose Fuki over me … or you!" He shouted.

"Let it go Tomaru, the bears told us why they chose Fuki plus after the way she knocked out that other one I think they were afraid she'd do the same to them" Naruto joked.

This didn't lesson Tomaru's jealousy or anger at all.

"Come on Naruto, you know I would be a better summoner than Fuki. I can just imagine summoning one of this big brutes to rip apart some bad guy while I rescue the princess and save the country. He would do anything I wanted him to and then I would become Hokage, because they would recognize my strength" Tomaru rants.

Naruto just let him go on his rant as they walked on. He did steal glances at Fuki who was also ignoring Tomaru who was now talking about how he would get a summon much cooler that stupid old bears. Fuki's strength had greatly surprised him. He didn't know she was that strong or able to pull off whatever move that was she pulled on the bear.

It made him realize that maybe he had started to discount his own teammates abilities. Hayama-sensei was obviously a very strong shinobi and a good teacher to have gotten them as far as he had in such a short amount of time. Fuki could punch out a bear and showed great control with her doton techniques. Even Tomaru despite being somewhat childish displayed a startling amount of cunning and battlefield tactics, plus a quick mind in the battle against the raging bear.

Naruto really felt lucky to apart of this team. It was starting to feel like family.

"Hey Fuki" Naruto said catching the girls attention.

"Maybe you shouldn't tell anyone you have a summon contract yet" Naruto says.

Fuki and Tomaru looked at his quizzically as did Hayama as he was curious about why a genin would consider hiding such a potentially powerful technique instead of bragging their asses off.

"Why?" Fuki asked.

Naruto's response wasn't verbal. Instead he stopped gathered chakra into his right hand, used the proper hand seals, and then slammed his hand on the ground in front of him.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu" Naruto called out.

In front of Naruto sat a cheetah cub a few months old. Naruto had purposely summoned him, because he liked his coloring which was white and black with amber eyes. He also like that the cub had a serious personality despite still being young.

"Naruto-sama, why have you summoned me?" questioned the cub.

"Sorry Fuyu, I was showing my team that I could summon you guys?" Naruto explains.

"Do you have any meat?" Fuyu asked.

"No, not on me but I'll summon you again when I get home okay?" Naruto asked.

"Sure Naruto-sama, bye" the cub said before poofing back to the grasslands.

"Naruto, what was that?" Hayama asked.

"I can summon the cheetah clan Hayama sensei" Naruto responds.

"Since when?" Tomaru butted in.

"About 5 days ago …" Naruto answers.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Fuki asked.

"I didn't want anyone to know" Naruto says truthfully.

"Why?" Hayama asked.

"Because, when people don't know you can do things they will underestimate you and think you are weak. If an enemy thinks you are weak then they will underestimate you and give you the advantage in a fight. I learned that keeping the full extent of your ability secret makes people underestimate you and makes things easier" Naruto explains.

Hayama nodded. It was fairly good reasoning … too good for a rookie genin. Naruto was still as much a mystery now as he was when he first received the team.

"Can you summon anything bigger than Fuyu?" Hayama asked.

"Some times, but I can't do it consistently yet" Naruto answers truthfully.

"Okay Naruto, well summoning is a very powerful and rare technique. Not just everyone gets a contract as the summon clans tend to be picky about who they let summon them. That said if you want to keep yours a secret for now I won't report it to the Hokage, but I suggest you tell him at some point" Hayama responds seriously.

"Hai sensei"

"Fuki, it's your choice on if you want people to know you are a summoner yet. I have to admit part of why I am allowing Naruto to keep his a secret is because people will target you if they find out you have contract thinking they can take it for themselves. If you want some time to think about it I can hold off on reporting it to Hokage-sama for a few days" Hayama tells her.

Fuki nodded, "Thank you sensei, I would like some time to think about it and maybe ask the bears what they think".

"Very well. Now Tomaru that means you can't blurt it out or tell anyone about this. I need you to respect your teammates wishes" Hayama orders.

"Hai sensei, but it's not fair. Why am I the only one without a summon contract!" Tomaru shouted.

"If it makes you feel any better Tomaru-kun I don't have a summon contract" Hayama says.

"Thanks sensei, but it really doesn't help" Tomaru responds.

Team 4 made good time running back to the village arriving a little after three thirty in the afternoon. When they arrived at the Hokage Tower they were sent right in only to find Team 7 plus the drunk they had passed after receiving their mission.

"Hokage-sama … should we come back later? Hayama asked.

"I told my secretary to let you in Hayama. I take it the mission was a success" The Hokage responds.

"Yes Hokage-sama, my team took care of Mrs. Sasaki's bear trouble with no problem" Hayama says handing the Hokage the signed mission request with payment inside.

"Good, good. Now I have called you in here because the mission Team 7 recently went on was a sham. The client here lied on his mission request form. It seems he's being targeted for assassination by a very rich individual with connections to the criminal underground named Gatō. Gatō has hired ninja to kill Tazuna and Team 7 was able to subdue two chūnin level missing-nin that attempted to carry out the assassination. After questioning Tazuna-san and finding out the truth they decided to abandon the mission and return to Konoha.

Tazuna decided to return with them and plead his case asking for another chance. He has agreed to pay a penalty for his deception and refiled his request with the proper ranking. Payment is to be deferred until such time as he or his village are able to with a grace period of one year.

Your team is being told this because I would like for Team 4 to go with Team 7 and finish this mission. Do you accept this mission?" the Hokage asks.

Hayama knew his team could handle this mission and if things went bad he and Kakashi were not made Jōnin for novelty. Kakashi was perhaps the strongest ninja currently in the village when he was serious and it sounded as if his team wasn't bad either.

Just to be sure though he looked at each member of his squad to see their reaction and was pleased to see they looked and eager and ready to go despite just coming back from a mission.

"Team 4 accepts the mission assignment Hokage-sama" Hayama replies.

"Very well, then due to your team's recent return from a mission I am sure Tazuna-san won' t object if you all begin bright and early tomorrow after you have better prepared yourselves" the Hokage says.

Tazuna wisely shook his head and said thank you to the Hokage.

"Then I will allow Hatake-san and Shirakumo-san to discuss the details among themselves. You are dismissed. Kakashi, Hayama stay for a moment would you" the Hokage directs.

The genin of Team 4 and 7 left the office with the client whom Team 4 could tell had sobered up some since they first saw him. When the genin and Tazuna left the Hokage turned to the two Jōnin.

The Hokage snapped his finger and three ANBU members drop down to the ground. A boar, bird, and cat masked ANBU all dropped down in front of the Hokage.

"Kakashi, Hayama I will be sending these three to shadow your teams during this mission. I am sure that by now Gatō has learned of the failure to kill Tazuna-san. He will most likely up his attempts to kill him and thus the danger of this mission is unknown.

They will not interfere or reveal themselves unless your teams encounter trouble that they or you cannot handle. They are also running independently of your mission as they have their own orders. You are not to interact with them or make your teams aware of them unless they choose to show themselves. Is that understood?" The Hokage asks.

"Yes, Hokage-sama" both men respond.

"Good you are dismissed"

Both jōnin leave the office immediately through different means.

"Your mission is to shadow and observe. When you return I want a detailed report on your analysis of the genin, especially Uzumaki Naruto. You are not to interfere unless Naruto or the Uchiha are near death. Do you understand your mission?"

The three ANBU nodded before leaving to prepare. The Hokage sat in his chair thinking over recent events. Team 4's growth was alarming considering how average their reports coming out of the academy were. Then there was the incident five days ago. He was still fielding inquiries into what exactly Gai was chasing around.

The civilians were convinced the yellow flash had returned. And Gai had put his team on leave as he conducted his own search for whatever it was that managed to escape him. The Hokage knew that whatever happened involved Naruto, it had to but that lead to some trouble some questions. The only thing he knew was he needed answers.

'Just what have you been doing Naruto-kun?

* * *

**This is a challenge issued by Narutoenthusiast. I thank you all for reading the eighth chapter in story. As you can see I have decided to do the Wave Arc after all. I hope you will enjoy it.  
**

**As always Until next time dear readers :)**


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer - I do not own Naruto nor this story Idea. It's a challenge issued by Narutoenthusiast.  
**

**Chapter Nine - Wave  
**

Team 4 and 7 were up and ready to go an hour after dawn. Their client took a little longer to rouse, but thankfully he no longer smelled like a brewery. When they were all at the gate Hatake, whom decided he should be the official leader of the mission, said they should all introduce themselves.

Team 4 looked at the man as if he was an idiot as did Kiba and Sakura. He quickly explained it has been some time since the academy and that even if they knew everyone he and Hayama didn't. The genin nodded at this explanation and decided to get it over with.

"Alright I'll go first. My name is Uzumaki Naruto, age 12, and I don't have a focus yet but I guess my strength lies in my speed and stealth ability" Naruto starts off.

"Good, but what about your likes, dislikes, goals or dream for the future?" Hatake asks.

"Why would that matter to the mission?" Naruto asks.

The rest of Team 4, Hayama, and Tazuna were interested in the answer to this as well. Naruto had given a solid introduction and they did need to get to Wave as fast as possible now that they took the day to rest. The client had already conveyed his worry for his family he left behind.

"Umm … hehe, I guess it doesn't but could you just go with it?" Hatake asked.

"Kakashi, I know I agreed on you being the leader but we are pressed for time. Naruto's introduction was good enough until we can get the client home and assess the situation" Hayama interferes.

"Fine, how about you go next Sakura" Kakashi offers.

"O-kay … I'm Haruno Sakura, age 12, and I guess my strength is my mind?" Sakura said questioningly.

Team 4 raised their eyebrows a bit at the seemingly awkward ending to her introduction. It was like the girl hadn't trained enough to know what she was good at. But they kept going.

"My name is Inuzuka Kiba, age 12, this is my partner Akamaru, he's a puppy, and I work with Akamaru to tear through my enemies" Kiba loudly bragged.

Of course this got Tomaru going ready to join in and boast about his strength.

"My name is Minakura Tomaru, age 12, my strength lies in ninjutsu!" he shouted.

Team 4 mentally shrugged expecting nothing less of their friend and teammate. Team 7 and Tazuna were giving him weird looks though as if he was an idiot, which he wasn't. Honest.

"Sasuke why don't you go last and let …" Kakashi starts.

"*Sigh* My name is Fuki … age 12 … I'm strong" was her simple introduction.

This got even Sasuke to raise an eyebrow. He remembered Fuki as one of his fan girls, but she seemed to have changed. That was good in his books, because he didn't need another Sakura on this mission. Meanwhile, Sakura and Kiba were trying to figure out what happened to the girl as she seemed nothing like they remembered.

"I guess it's my turn. My name is Uchiha Sasuke, age 12, I'm strong in ninjutsu and taijutsu" Sasuke answers.

"My name is Shirakumo Hayama, age 39, my strength lies in kenjutsu and ninjutsu" Hayama says.

"My name is Hatake Kakashi, age 26, my strengths are ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu. I will be leading this mission so I hope we can all work well together and get along" Kakashi says.

"Great well I'm Tazuna, age 59, I'm a bridge builder. Now that your kindergarten style introductions are over I'd like to get home before that money hungry midget kills my precious daughter and grandson" Tazuna interrupts.

"Tazuna-san does have a point, but first have you all packed at least two week's worth of supplies?" Kakashi asks.

Both teams nod.

"Alright, if you aren't sure though speak up because once we leave the village you won't have much opportunity to resupply" Kakashi warns.

When no one said anything they all began to head out towards Wave. After a couple of hours passed Hamaki posed Kakashi a question.

"Kakashi-san, are we close to where your team was ambushed?" Hayama asked.

Kakashi looked around the area nonchalantly before replying, "hard to tell".

While Hayama was trying to pry information from the annoyingly aloof Kakashi the genin were also talking.

"Hey Kiba, how's it going?" Tomaru asked.

"Eh, alright I guess" Kiba responds.

"Oh, you guys go on any exciting missions yet?" Tomaru asked.

"Nah, not really. This is our first C-rank" Kiba admits.

"Oh" was the simple response.

"Well, I heard from Hayama-sensei that Kakashi was really strong. I bet you guys are doing some insane training right?" Tomaru asked.

"Of course, Team 7's the strongest team there is" Kiba boasted.

"No way, Hayama-sensei has also put us through some intense training. Team 4 is the strongest team!" Tomaru shouted.

"Get real Tomaru! None of you are a match for me and Akamaru!" Kiba shouted back.

"I'll beat you any time any where, bring it!" Tomaru replied.

Before it could get any further the two jōnin had to separate the boys before it got any further. More like Hayama grabbed Tomaru and cooled him down while Kakashi just went back to reading his book.

"Boys, can you believe those two getting so worked up over something like that. Especially when it's obvious none of them compare to Sasuke-kun, right Fuki?" Sakura asked.

"…"

"Fuki what's wrong? Don't you agree with me? Don't you like Sasuke?" Sakura asked.

"…"

"Come on Fuki stop playing around and tell me you agree Sasuke-kun's the best" Sakura urged.

"…"

"Can you hear me?" Sakura asked.

"…"

At this point Sakura still didn't get the hint, but Fuki was saved when Sasuke sneezed and the pinkette went to see if he was okay. Unfortunately for Fuki she returned. Meanwhile the last two members of both squads just ignored the other and the other two boys' antics. It would take another day before they reached the shore where a boat was waiting for both teams.

"I'm sorry, but there is only enough room in the boat for me to carry one team across" the boatman said.

"That's okay. My team and I will go ahead and scout the area for enemies" Hayama says.

"Alright, but please do so silently. I don't need Gatō finding out that I'm helping you guys" the boat owner warns.

"Calm down Kaji, no one actively watches the water ways any more. Gatō and his men are too busy looting the village to notice us" Tazuna says.

"Shirokuma-san, if you have the time please place some traps along the route we will be traveling to the town" Kakashi orders.

Hayama nods and not waiting for anything more take off across the water using the water surface walking practice skill. Although Kakashi and the trailing ANBU made note that Naruto was actually gliding or 'skating' across the water so fast that he had left his team and sensei behind as they ran to catch up. Naruto would often note during water surface walking practice training that being a water element user did have its advantages.

Team 4 and the two citizens of wave just stood in shock. Those kids and their sensei's just walked on water like it was land. The boat owner Kaji noted they were also very silent when doing so making hardly a ripple on the surface of the water. The two civilians them turned to Team 4.

"Can your group do that or are they special?" Kaji asked.

"It's a standard ninja practice, but I am surprised the genin know it so soon" Kakshi notes.

"Oh" was the reply.

"We should get going as well" Kakashi says getting everyone moving.

Sasuke and Kiba both noted the skill Team 4 used. Despite coming from ninja families neither had seen the water surface walking practice used before. So far being a ninja had been slightly disappointing. Kakashi was holding off on showing or teaching anything he deemed to advanced for fresh out of the academy genin. Yet here was team 4, a team of nobodies, already using something useful and cool that they had no clue about.

For not the first time Sasuke questioned if he had the right teacher. Unknown to him Kiba was also questioning their sensei, but not just because of what he saw Team 4 do. His questioning had more to do with what his mother and sister told him of their genin days. Sparing with Sasuke every other day was getting boring and the only other thing they were practicing was teamwork and the basics or what Kakashi considered the basics.

He hadn't said anything to his mother or sister about it yet, but if things didn't change he would after this mission. For Sakura everything was great and she had no problems except for getting a seat in the boat next to Sasuke, which she did. But she did take note of what Team 4 did as well hoping to learn it later on.

It took almost an hour for Team 7 to make it across the channel as the boat user refused to use the motor to get them there. Seeing the bride and village was cool though. It did seem weird that upon dropping them off the boat user then used his motor.

With Kaji gone they turned to look for Team 4, but Team 4 found them instead walking out of the forested area to greet them.

"I take it the boat ride went well?" Hayama asked.

Kakashi nodded and asked, "What of your team? Were you able to successfully scout ahead?"

"Hai, no enemy presence detected so far. I did feel like we were being watched though" Hayama reports.

"Alright, we'll head for the clients house. Let's move out in a diamond formation with Naruto and Sasuke in front" Kakashi orders.

They quickly got into formation and walked the path to the village. They didn't get far before Naruto flashed out of site and the next thing they knew a teen in a Kiri hunter-nin's mask bounded on to the road and dashed off into the trees on the opposite side. Naruto was only a step behind showing his speed as both teens were quickly lost in the foliage fighting at a fast pace.

"Sensei!" Tomaru shouted.

"Hold formation Tomaru, Naruto can handle it. If he needs help he'll come back" Hayama orders.

"Are you sure Hayama? I can send Kiba or Sasuke after him?" Kakashi questioned.

Before he could respond both teams were forced to duck as a giant cleaver shaped object tore through the area and embedded itself in a tree. Both teams were back on their feet quickly surrounding Tazuna who was also now on his feet. Kakashi and Hayama recognized the guy standing on the embedded weapon.

"Oh, my, my, you are Momochi Zabuza, missing-nin from the village of the Hidden Mist?" Kakashi says.

Kakashi knew this would be a tough fight if he didn't use his hidden gift.

"I'm guessing you are Kakashi the Sharingan user. I'm sorry, but I'll need you to hand over the geezer" Zabuza states.

"Is that guy serious? Can't he see he's out numbered 7 to 1?" Tomaru asks out loud.

"Tomaru, this guy is out of your leagues. He's a former member of the 7 swordsmen of Kiri. They were said to be even stronger than their ANBU before most of them were killed or went rogue becoming missing-nin" Hayama states quickly.

"I see you have heard of me then" Zabuza states.

Kakashi moves his head protector to its intended resting place on his forehead revealing the red-eye of an active and mature Sharingan. Sasuke stared hard at his sensei wondering how he had something that was only supposed to be utilized by select members of his clan the Uchiha. He knew it wasn't time for asking question but he filed it away for later when he would.

"I'm honored that I can see the Sharingan that I've heard about. When I was in the Hidden Village of the Mist's assassination squad your information was listed in the Bingo Book I carried asking for your capture. It also noted this … the man who copied more than 1,000 techniques, Kakashi the copy ninja" Zabuza says.

Kakashi says nothing as he and Zabuza try to stare each other down.

"What? Kakashi-sensei was that great of a ninja?" Sakura questioned.

Sasuke continued with his earlier thoughts though no also wondered if perhaps Kakashi was an Uchiha some how that survived the massacre. Kiba just wondered if the man was so strong why he hadn't shown them anything yet.

"Let's cut the chit-chat here. I have to kill that geezer right away" Zabuza says preparing to fight.

When he says this the genin instantly surround Tazuna to cover any potential areas of attack except for an area behind the old drunk. They were mostly covering the front and sides since they were sure any attack would come from the front as there was no way this ninja could get behind them with Kakashi and Hayama present.

"Hayama stay with the kids and protect the client. I'll handle Zabuza" Kakashi states confidently.

Hayama nods and stands in a ready position a little ahead of the genin.

"It seems I'll have to defeat you first Kakashi"Zabuza says.

Zabuza quickly shunshins from his place on the branch his sword now sheathed on his back and is now seen on the water. The genin lost sight of him and appeared confused until Sakura noted his new position to the rest not that they really needed her to since he was now directly in front of them.

Hayama and Kakashi noted the build up of chakra by Zabuza, with Kakashi noting it was water chakra as mist began to cloud their visibility. Just before it did Zabuza calmly called out the name of the jutsu he was using.

"Kirigakure no Jutsu – Hiding in Mist Technique"

He seemingly vanishes as the fog covers everything hiding him from sight even from Kakashi's active sharingan. All Kakashi could see was the vast amount of water chakra circulating the area. Kakashi warns the genin telling them more about Zabuza and the technique he was using, although Hayama noted it was in perhaps the worst way possible as they all tensed up anticipating an attack.

"The Mist is getting thicker" Tomaru noted.

He didn't like not being able to see and he could barely make out the faces of those beside him let alone the approaching enemy.

"The country of the Wave is surrounded by ocean so a mist often emerges" Tazuna added.

It felt like forever when they heard.

"Eight points. The larynx, spine, lungs, liver, jugular vein, kidney, collarbone, and heart. Now which vital point do you want to get struck at?" Zabuza calls out from the mist.

Kakashi whom was hidden from view of the genin quickly flared his chakra to dispel most of the mist clouding the area giving a clearer view for everyone. Sasuke in particular feels the weight of Kakashi and Zabuza's chakra suffocating him. It makes him feel like he wants to kill himself to get away from the battle until Kakashi calms him with a vow to protect them all. Some question though if he really meant all of them and not just Sasuke the only one he named.

"I don't know about that" Zabuza responds.

The genin are shocked at how he got between them and the client.

"This is the …"

He never got to finish as Hayama pierced his gut with his sword. Instead of blood though water poured out of the wound identifying it as a water clone. He would know that technique anywhere after witnessing Naruto use it in the spars they held once a week.

"Behind you sensei!" Tomaru called out.

When Hayama looked behind him he saw Zabuza already in mid swing to tear him in half. That was when Kakashi appeared as he shoved a kunai through the gut only for water to spill out of the wound. Only for the real Zabuza to now appear behind him.

He had to immediately use a Kiri Shunshin to teleport away as Hayama threw a wind enhanced kunai at his chest that would have killed him instantly. When Zabuza reappeared he was now standing on to of the water back in front of the group. A second later his accomplice also showed up breathing heavily with visible bruising and cuts on their bodies and arms although their face was still covered by a mask.

It was in this moment Naruto also rejoined the group with similar cuts and bruising visible not just to his body, but also his face even though the jōnin and Zabuza noted that they seemed to be slowly healing on their own as the bruising was fading and the cuts slowly sealing up.

"Naruto, what happened?" Hayama asked.

"The presence I felt earlier when we were scouting was the masked teen over there. When I found him in the bushes he seemed to be waiting for some signal. Sensei he's really fast and uses some weird ice jutsu I've never heard of before" Naruto responds.

'Ice jutsu' both jōnin thought.

Meanwhile Zabuza was also talking to his accomplice.

"Haku, what happened? And why is that blond brat still alive?" Zabuza demanded.

"I'm sorry Zabuza-sama. He caught me by surprise and he was too fast. I couldn't use most of my jutsu as he never gave me a chance. I managed to get away using shunshin, but there's something strange about that boy Zabuza-sama. He nearly caught me trying to get back to you and I had to use my bloodline to stop him before I finally got away" Haku reports.

The three men never took their eyes off one another as they were given the reports. What they heard changed everything. Zabuza knew he had to retreat while both jōnin felt the need to retreat and regroup. Zabuza being impatient made the first move.

"It seems things aren't in my favor. You win this round Konoha, but I'll be back for the geezer" Zabuza warns.

"What makes you think we'll just let you leave?" Kakashi questioned.

"I don't" was the reply.

Zabuza quickly went through the hand seals, Tiger - Ox - Monkey -Rabbit - Ram - Boar - Ox - Horse - Monkey - Tiger - Dog - Tiger - Snake - Tiger - Ox - Monkey - Rabbit - Bird.

"Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu – Water Release: Great Waterfall Technique" Zabuza called out.

A towering wave of water crashed down in front of the teams forcing them to jump up into the trees. Hayama knowing Tazuna would need help grabbed onto him and did the same. When the water receded both Kiri-nin were gone leaving the team's and Tazuna alone.

They all jumped down with Hayama once again helping Tazuna.

"Hatake-san, you should cover your eye before you suffer from chakra exhaustion. We don't have a medic that can properly take care of you out here" Hayama warned.

"Ma, ma, it's already taken care of. We should get moving to the client's house. Tazuna-san if you will take us to your home. We can set up some protections there incase those two come back" Kakashi says.

"Sure, sure it's this way" Tazuna says as they follow him.

Tazuna's house

"Tsunami, Inari I'm home" the old man called out.

He managed to lead the teams to his house without any difficulties. It's seemed Zabuza and his masked accomplice had truly left them alone for now. The jōnin knew he would be back and probably with extra help.

"Father, is that you?" a woman called out.

"Yes, yes come greet the super ninja that will be protecting us" Tazuna calls back.

When the woman did come out to greet the teams Hayama found her to be very attractive while Kakashi seemingly ignored her, but was also eyeing their client's daughter. She stood before the teams and thanked them for protecting her father which both teams waved off. Then Tazuna noticed something.

"Tsunami-chan, where is Inari?" He asked.

Before she could answer a dark-haired little boy wearing a white and blue bucket hat and blue overalls walked out. It was noted by everyone how the boy purposely kept his back or side to the teams not acknowledging them in the least.

"Why are they here?" Inari asked curtly.

"These are the super ninja I hired to protect us Inari. Say hi to them" Tazuna responds.

"Why? They're all going to die anyway" the boy retorts.

"Inari!" Tsunami shouted.

"I'm going to watch the ocean" the little boy announced before leaving.

Both teams stood watching as the kid took off probably to his room.

"I'm … sorry, please forgive my son. He's just going through a rough time" Tsunami apologizes.

"It's fine Tsunami-san, you don't have to apologize" Hayama assures the mother.

Meanwhile, the genin seemed unaffected by the rant but each had their own thoughts on the kid. Most notably Naruto whom could feel the sorrow rolling off the kid. He had always been able to sense negative emotions, but lately it seemed he was able to notice more than just anger and hatred. Still, he didn't want to interfere with whatever the kid had going on. His troubles were his and he knew there was only one way to really change a person and it wasn't by talking or yelling at them.

"It's been a long day. I think we should all take the time to rest" Kakashi says.

Hayama wasn't one to disagree although he did think they should at least set up a guard schedule, but one night wouldn't hurt anything.

"Tsunami-chan, would you show them to the guest rooms?" Tazuna asked his daughter.

"Hai, right this way please" Tsunami offers.

The teams follow the mother and set up their bedding in the rooms. Sakura and Fuki ended up rooming with Tsunami while the boys share a room and the two sensei's take the remaining available room.

Gatō's mansion

Zabuza and Haku were in Gatō's office informing him of the change to their mission.

"So you're telling me after all the money you are expecting me to give you that you need to hire more help to get the job done?" the little man asked.

"Hai" Zabuza answered.

"Then what the fuck am I paying you for!" the business magnate shouted.

"It was unexpected that they would go back to Konoha and successfully request more ninja after the demon brother's attacked the first team" Zabuza explained.

He didn't like failing on a mission. He rarely failed and he would not fail this one, but he'd be stupid if he tried to take on two fully equipped teams with just Haku as back-up. If the teams were led by ordinary jōnin it wouldn't be as much of an issue. But he was dealing with Hatake Kakashi the copy-nin and from what he witness another very competent jōnin leading the other team.

That didn't even get in to the kiddies that had proven to be more than he thought they were especially that blond one. Haku still couldn't give him an accurate report on the blond genin's skill. He just kept stating he was really fast and adapt at hand to hand and standard weapon fighting.

Zabuza had noted that one team seemed to at least carry swords so they must have at least some practice in using them. That would have intrigued him if it didn't screw with his mission and livelihood.

"Fine, I didn't want to do this but it seems I have no choice. I need this bridge builder killed and his fucking bridge destroyed along with any hope this backwater village has with it!" Gatō rants.

"I have some contacts that can get me in touch with a couple of missing-nin around Fire Country. Just give me a little advance to secure their services …" Zabuza starts only to be interrupted.

"No. I also thought this can happen and as loath as I am to reach out to the villages for help … I made an exception in this case. The bridge builder went to a hidden village well I also contacted a hidden village just in case you couldn't handle it. As a matter of fact they are here now. I introduce to you …"

At this point four people walk into the room. Three males one with his head wrapped in bandages save for his left eye, another with spiky dark hair and dark eyes and a beige shirt with the kanji for death going down the middle, and the last was a dark-skinned dark-eyed kid with six arms. The lone female of the group seemed normal and very cute to both males. Gatō thought he could have some other user for her if things fell the right way.

"Dosu" Gatō points to the bandaged male.

"Zaku" he says pointing to the other male genin.

"Kin" he points to the female.

"And their leader for this mission Kidōmaru. I was assured that he was one of the best Otogakure had to offer and that this was their top team. They will be working with you to finish the job. And since I had to pay a village for an official squad and the money spent is already gone unable to be recovered their pay will be taken out of what I owe you plus half of any bounty those ninja have on their heads" Gatō informs the now angered Zabuza.

"That's not the deal we struck!" Zabuza shouted.

"This is the deal we have now. Things change Zabuza-chan. You can either except it or get out, but don't think I won't be making a call to some of your old friends and let them know what you've been up to recently and of course where you are staying" the little weasel threatens.

"Your playing a dangerous game Gatō, don't forget who I am. I could kill all four of these shit stains without breaking a sweat. I've heard of Otogakure. They are a newly made village and a particularly blood thirsty one. I thought about joining up myself, but then I heard about what happens to most of the ninja that serve under their leader.

I like my body just the way it is. I don't need some freak operating on me to give me power unlike these weaklings. I wouldn't think of double-crossing them either Gatō, because I heard their leader is particularly vicious and vindictive to those that do. I'm sure he would love to operate on you and your minions. And if you think about double-crossing me or not giving me what you owe me then I'll make what he'll do to you feel like a day in the park, understood" Zabuza warned.

He leveled some killing intent on the midget causing him to wet his pants before leaving with Haku after a brief stare down with the Oto team. When he finally left Gatō spoke to the Oto-nin about what he expected of them.

"You know your mission. I hope your better at it than that oaf. I also hope you are prepared to carry out the second part of your mission, because after what he just pulled I don't want Zabuza or his friend making it off that bridge in one piece" he ordered.

"Understood, we'll make our move by the end of the week" the leader assured.

"Fine, but don't fail me or else I'll ruin the reputation of your village and you'll never get another client again!" Gatō threatened.

The Oto team then took their leave having enough of the fat little man. When they left the shipping tycoon turned to his two subordinates and nodded at them. They had their own jobs to prepare for. If those Oto-nin thought he was just going to pay them without any means to recoup all the money he spent and then some, they were chumps and chumps were meant to be taken advantage of.

There were two reasons behind why he contracted ninja for the new village that just popped up. The first was he heard of their reputation and dealings. They were possibly more crooked and evil then he ever could be. There was nothing this village wouldn't do including experiment on and torturing their own people.

The second reason was what made them ideal for what he needed. They were a new village with no friends. Even the people that hired them were wary of the new village and their leader rumored to be a legendary missing-nin with little regard for his subordinates. He was sure the man wouldn't care if he lost a few ninja and more to the point he was sure Konoha would pay for some of the information he had gathered on the man. If worse came to worse he had a bargaining chip to get him out of trouble should the Oto team and Zabuza fail him. After he sent every last one of his thugs to kill them and buy him some time. Their life wasn't important anyway and no one would miss them. He was the one that mattered and he had too much planned to die in this backwater shit hole that no one had ever heard of before he arrived.

After all he had money and power, enough to buy his own country. That was all that mattered in this world, money and power.

* * *

**This is a challenge issued by Narutoenthusiast. I thank you all for reading the ninth chapter in story. I hope you all enjoyed it. I apologize for those expecting one of my other stories to be updated.  
**

**As always Until next time dear readers :)**


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto**

**Chapter 10 – New Faces**

Both teams had awakened early to get started on the day. Tazuna wanted to get to the bridge in a few hours, but the jōnin figured they could get their teams started and then leave them to fend for their selves while they guarded the bridge builder. Now they were in a small clearing staring at some trees.

"We're going to begin training you cute little genin so that you survive the upcoming battle with Zabuza and his apprentice. They may have extra help along and you will may need to handle them on your own" Kakashi states.

"Sweet! Your finally going to train us and give us some cool technique!" Kiba shouted.

"Calm down Kiba. I will not be showing you any jutsu quite yet. We have no idea when Zabazu might show up so any training you do will have to be something you can learn fast and without burning through all of you chakra" Kakashi states.

This had the affect of dampening all the genins spirits knowing they wouldn't be learning anything cool.

"Then what are we going to learn sensei?" Sakura asked.

"I'm glad you asked Sakura-chan. I will be teaching you how to climb trees" Kakashi states.

This also got the affect he was looking for as the genin gave him questioning stares none more so than Team 4.

"But, we already know how to climb trees" Tomaru responds.

"I don't mean the way you genin normally climb tree's. I mean like this"

Kakashi proceeds to walk up the tree in front of him without the use of hands to demonstrate what he meant.

"That's exactly what I meant! We already know this exercise. Hayama-sensei showed us this the first week we became a team!" shouted at the man.

"Oh" was all Kakashi could say.

The genin of Team 7 that had been looking at their sensei with awe were now back to giving him sour looks as they didn't like that another team was getting training they weren't. Mainly Sasuke, because he needed that level of training. Kakashi hadn't shown him anything even if he did work more with him than his other two teammates on the basics. He didn't need that, he needed what Team 4 seemed to be getting.

This lead to all of the genins of Team 7 wondering what the other teams were learning and if they had been left behind and just didn't know it.

"Hatake-san, I think your team should work on this while I give my team another exercise to work on" Hayama says.

Kakashi just shrugged and started to read his book, which made Hayama curious.

'How long could it take to read a single book? He has the sharingan he could memorize the whole thing in a minute and then relive the scenes in his mind from what I know of that cursed dōjutsu's power'

'He's been reading that thing since we left the village and I've only seen him turn a few pages?' Hayama questioned.

"Team 4, follow me" Hayama calls out.

Naruto, Tomaru, and Fuki followed as Team 7 watched them leave the clearing. Sasuke wanted to follow them to see what they were doing, but Kakashi threw a kunai in his path and told his team to start climbing while marking their progress with the kunai. Sasuke frowned at this, but decided to do the training. He could always make Team 4 tell him what they did later.

Meanwhile, Team 4 stood in another clearing a short distance away from Team 7, but the trees and bushes concealed them from the other genin. Hayama had them sit in a circle Indian style before he described the exercise to them.

"What I will be showing you three is a new chakra control practice. You all have surpassed my expectations on how well you did with the first three control practices. Now I am going to teach you how to control your chakra through meditation" Hayama starts.

"Meditation?" Tomaru questioned.

"Meditation is a practice in which an individual trains the mind and/or induces a mode of consciousness to realize some benefit" Hayama lectures.

"Mode of consciousness?" Naruto asks.

"I'm not really up on the technical aspects of it Naruto, but I think I remember it being circumstances that change the relationship between the mind and the world producing what are known as altered states of consciousness or mind" Hayama answers.

Naruto nods at this, but Tomaru now has another question.

"How will that help us learn to control our chakra?" he asked.

"Good question, there are many different kinds of meditation and many different techniques and goals or objectives. Some use meditation simply as a way to relax, some use it to develop their compassion, patience, love among other things and more advanced far reaching goals like sustained single-pointed concentration, single-pointed analysis, or an indestructible sense of well-being in any situation. What we will be using it for is to build up your chakra" Hayama answers

"How do we do that sensei?" Fuki asked.

"I do not as I said before know the actual techniques and mechanisms behind traditional meditation. There are books in the library you can check out when we get home if you are really interested in the subject. For our purposes though I want you all to sit with your legs crossed" Hayama instructs.

Hayama also sat as they did and crossed his legs as they followed.

"Now place your hands palms down on your knees so that your entire body is connected and rooted to the Earth" Hayama further instructs them.

The kids followed in his movements.

"Now the tricky part of meditation is that it requires you to sit still and open your mind. To help in this some focus on an object, others chant, and many other ways. I can't give you an object to focus so we're going to have to use visualization. I imagine this will be harder for you Tomaru as you won't be able to talk and it is unknown how long it will take before you can accomplish this step. It's takes longer for some than others, but if you find yourself getting frustrated just calm down, take a few deep breaths, and keep trying.

When each of you are ready close your eyes, take deep relaxing breaths, picture your chakra, think about the times you have used your chakra and recall that sensation. When you feel your chakra picture it moving throughout your body. First move it to the base of your spine, then slowly move it through your legs, your feet, and then each of your toes. When you can feel your chakra cover the entirety of your lower body then try sustaining that feeling, and then move it up through your body.

Feel the chakra as it moves up your chest, through your arms, your hands, your individual fingers then back up through your neck, your chin, your mouth, your nose, your eyes, your ears, your eyebrows, your temple, brain, and even your hair. Once you have accomplished that sustain that feeling, and then move the chakra back down through your body and then up again and back down, up and down, just keep it moving up and down your body. I'll monitor you as you do this and let you know when it's time to stop" Hayama tells them.

As he stands up he notes that all of them even Tomaru had already seemed to move into a light trance. He moves towards a tree and leans against it as he waits.

"Your team finished already Kakashi?" Hayama asked out loud, but low enough to not disturb his team.

When Kakashi made his way through the trees and foliage to stand next to the tree beside him Hayama noted he was no longer reading his book.

"Sakura-chan has already figured it out. It seems she has a natural ability with chakra control, but I suggested she keep doing it to build on her low reserves. The other two will probably take most of the week to get it down considering the limitations we have on training time" Kakashi responds.

Hayama nods at this. They were both worried about when the next attack would come. Naruto's fight with the accomplice seemed to be the toughest fight and he had recovered quickly enough. Their fight with Zabuza had been little more than a spat each of them probing the other to find out their skill level and ability.

It hadn't been enough to get an accurate reading, but for jōnin of their caliber and experience it was enough. So far the genin were their advantage as Zabuza probably couldn't get a good enough read on any of them with his focus split between the two of them. Unfortunately they couldn't count on the genin's help and they didn't want to send any of them against the apprentice either if they could help it.

Both men focused on the three genin of Team 4 and noted the varying levels of concentration. Naruto seemed to be the most adapt at it like he had already had some practice with meditation. Fuki had seemed to be only slightly struggling, while Tomaru as expecting was finding it difficult to relax and focus as he was the most energetic and wild of the trio even though something told Hayama Naruto could be even crazier in the right or wrong circumstances.

"Why are you here Kakashi?" Hayama asked.

"I just wanted to see what your team was working on. This is a little too advanced for genin isn't it?" Kakashi returned.

"I only push them as far as they are capable of going. Like all genin they were very raw when I received them, but they've worked hard and pushed themselves to learn at a rate I haven't seen since the last war. I tried once to hold them back and stall their progress a little, but they didn't let me" Hayama answers.

"Didn't let you?" Kakashi questioned.

"Nope, I told them if each of them completed a scroll full of the standard genin chakra control to my satisfaction that only then would I teach them more" Hayama says.

Kakashi didn't respond just waited for the older man to finish. When he learned of their teams being paired up for this mission he had sought out some friends to give him a little information on Team 4's jōnin. The man was someone he could respect. Someone he was willing to bet his sensei would have respected as well as he seemed to share in their belief of the team above mission and village above all mentality. Hayama was a man of sacrifice and duty.

"It took them less than a month before they had them all down and a couple of weeks later they could even do them in combination. A truly remarkable team and I feel lucky to be their sensei" Hayama finishes.

Kakashi didn't agree with the man teaching genin such advanced material, but he could feel the pride the man had in his team. It reminded him once more of his sensei. He only wished he could feel the same about his team.

"Can you handle guarding Tazuna in an hour" Kakashi asked.

"Sure, I'll leave a clone behind to watch the kids until you take over" Hayama answers.

"Sounds good. I guess I should go do a little training myself. Admittedly Zabuza got the drop on me. Without your assistance I am not sure I could have chased him off like that" Kakashi says.

"It's to be expected. Those swordsmen as a group were nearly unbeatable before they fell apart. Even the weakest of them were a match for your average jōnin. Zabuza himself was some where in the middle and he's been running around trying to avoid their hunter-nin for some time. If he was still a swordsman I don't think either of us would have survived the confrontation as we are currently" Hayama responds.

Kakashi nods. He didn't like it, but it was true. He had started slacking off on his training since he left ANBU and admittedly even at his best he was still no match for his sensei or father. With a nod Kakashi melted back into the surroundings leaving to find his own area to train. His kids would be fine, they didn't need him to hold their hands doing such a simple exercise.

Hayama watched the kids for an hour before creating a clone to watch over the kids while he guarded the client. When he came back a few hours before sunset he found the kids pretty much as he left them. It seems they still hadn't accessed their chakra. Naruto and Fuki had seemed to manage the concentration and focus part of the meditation exercise at least, but Tomaru was still stuck at the starting line.

He didn't expect any more of them. This wasn't something they would get in a week or even a month. This was something people practiced their entire life. This was an exercise that could never truly be mastered, because just when you got one aspect of it there was another for you to learn and keep the process going.

Even if one did get the most they could out of the chakra building aspect of it. Most found meditating to be a worth while practice and continued training in the other applications of it. But for now it had served his purpose so he alerted his team and had them spend the last of the daylight hours doing their normal practices focusing a little more on their kenjutsu.

The next day it was spent in the same way with the genin of both team's training in their respective chakra control exercise and with team 4 finishing up early to work on what they normally practice on. So far the enemy hadn't been spotted and everything in the town was normal so far. The only real drama that took place was with the client's grandson.

Apparently the little boy had become convinced that Gatō was some invincible super villain that couldn't be beat by anyone or anything. He had even gone off on a verbal tirade about how his life was so much worse than all of theirs and how they should butt out of other people's problem.

The only ones to react were Tomaru and Kiba. With Tomaru shouting at how they were there to help and pointing out a little crudely that Gatō wasn't invincible like the kid believed. Kiba just growled and called him a weak little cry baby that was hiding behind his mother's legs where all cry babies like him belonged. That comment earned Kiba a smack to the back of the head courtesy of Sakura, who agreed with both boys but thought they didn't need to pick on the kid.

Of course Kiba didn't take lightly to the physical punishment as he then turned and growled at the girl, but to her credit Sakura didn't back down. The rest of them just watched the tirade and then retreat of the little boy who ran upstairs, but only after Tazuna had started to tell them of the boy's step-father. Tsunami didn't take kindly to the genin's verbal abuse of her son or her father bringing up old wounds and went after her son to console him.

After they left Tazuna finished telling them about Kaiza and his role in Inari's life. The genin were naturally shocked at the brutality Gatō publicly displayed and felt sorry for the boy, but that didn't excuse his behavior. If anything to Tomaru and Kiba they felt Inari and the citizens of Wave had spat on the man's grave with their subsequent show of cowardice. Still some of them tried to put themselves in the kid's position and understood a little of how he felt.

The two jōnin weren't moved either way by the story. They had heard, seen, and done worse. They did like the bit of extra fire they could see in their genin's eye after the story was finished. The genin even wanted to go out and practice more, but the two jōnin managed to get them to save it for the next day. After they all left Kakashi went and had a chat with Inari.

The next couple of days passed relatively quietly. Team 7 had managed to complete the tree walking exercise by the end of the fourth day, but Team 4 still hadn't made much progress with their meditation. They had all managed to at least get the first step down even Tomaru.

The jōnin knew the enemy was watching them on the fourth day. That gave them the feeling that the time for training was over and the fight for survival would soon be on. On the fifth day the teams decided to split up. One would watch the client's daughter and grandchild at the house while the other went with Tazuna to the bridge.

It was a short time after Team 7 left that two of Gatō's thugs showed up on the docks outside the house. They walked up towards the house like they owned the place with no fear and were quickly met by Team 4 before they could get close to the house.

"Who are you!" the shorter thug shouted.

"We are a team of ninja hired to protect the bridge builder and his family. Now why don't you tell us who you are friend or perhaps you would rather just go back the way you came and forget about this house and it's occupants" Hayama responds.

"You ninja are all alike, believing your so tough that nothing can touch you. We'll show you exactly why you shouldn't underestimate a samurai!" shouted the taller tattooed thug.

Both men drew their sword to cut down team 4's leader so quick that the genin didn't even see them move the sword as they flicked the blood off their blades, well Tomaru and Fuki didn't. They would have to move far faster than that to evade Naruto's eyes as they had become accustomed to such movement during his training.

"You kiddies are next" proclaimed Waraji hungry for their blood.

"I don't think so" Hayama remarks from behind the pair.

Before they could even turn to look behind them Hayama drilled two kunai into the back of their skulls. They fell to the ground with a heavy thud as blood poured from eyes, nose, and mouth creating twin red pools where their heads lay.

This was the first time the genin of Team 4 had seem a person die like that. It hit them each in a different way, but the hardest hit was Tomaru. Being from a civilian family they had little experience with ninja. Tomaru was actually the first in the family to ever want to be a ninja although he had some uncles that had been to the academy and flunked out. His graduation and acceptance onto team 4 was a great surprise to his family as they believed he would wash out like the others had previously.

For Tomaru his time on Team 4 had been a dream come true and he had learned so much from his sensei and team mates. He was proud when he went home everyday and practiced what he could in his families backyard with his little brother and sisters watching him and at times try to imitate him. Seeing someone being killed in front of him though, was something he couldn't prepare for.

Hayama took note of each genin's reaction. He would calm them down later, but now they didn't have time. If these two showed up at the house for whatever reason then Team 7 was in trouble and they needed to link back up with them immediately.

Hayama had Naruto who seemed to be the least affected go and retrieve Tsunami and Inari. When the mother and son came out the body and blood was gone with no trace of the scene visible save for the still slightly shaking Tomaru. He ordered them to go hide somewhere in the village, cause Gatō was sending thugs to the house to harm them. The mother quickly agreed and ran off with the child.

With them gone Team 4 hurried through the woods to meet up with Team 7. They had just made it past the remains of a boar that the wannabe samurai had cut up when they were stopped by a new foe. A blast of wind hit the ground kicking up debris, rock, and dirt to block their vision. The team waited for the next attack when senbon started peppering them from beyond the dirt cloud.

Having enough of the attacks Hayama stepped in and used a Fūton Daitoppa strong enough to blow away the senbon dust cloud and a couple of trees in front of his team. This also stripped the enemy of their hiding place causing them to fall to the ground, but they recovered enough to fall on their feet.

"Hehe, nice jutsu" called the guy who seemed to be the leader.

The genin were shocked by the older teen's appearance. It wasn't his dark skin or the weird village insignia on his head protector, it was the six arms protruding from his torso. The mummy looking genin in front of him was also weird, but not freaky like his team's leader and the other two appeared to be normal save from the aggression they were throwing at them.

"Your working for Gatō?" Hayama questioned.

"He hired our team. The fat pig was too cheap to hire anything above a genin team and a single jōnin, but we're more than enough to deal with a weak pathetic team of tree huggers like yours" the six-arm teen boasted.

"Tough talk from a weak boy from a weak village. I've never even heard of you guys before. I bet you don't even qualify as a real village" Hayama taunts back.

"Heh, weak huh. My name is Kidōmaru of the East Gate and this is Dosu, Zaku, and Kin. You three should go play with those other genins, I'll deal with the jōnin" Kidōmaru ordered.

"Hah, these punks don't stand a chance against us" boasted Zaku.

"Oh yeah, I'll take you out with one jutsu stupid!" Tomaru shouted back.

"Why you little …" Zaku started to get angry.

"Calm down Zaku, don't fall for such a cheap ploy. Come on let's get out of here so Kidōmaru can deal with their leader" Dosu commands.

Zaku and Kin nod before the three took off into the trees. Team 4 looked towards Hayama for orders and he gave them the go ahead. When the genin were gone Hayama and Kidōmaru got started.

"What's your name leaf nin" the Oto teen asked.

"Shirakumo Hayama, I don't have time for this because if you're here it means my comrades are in danger. Let's make this quick shall we" Hayama responds.

"Fine by me. I have better things to do as well" Kidōmaru taunts.

"Nenkin no Yoroi** – **Armour of Sticky Gold" Kidōmaru called out.

Hayama watched as a yellow gold type substance started to cover the teem forming some type of armor. Deciding to see what the jutsu did Hayama fired off another Great Breakthrough, but the jutsu didn't seem to have much success.

"My armour blocks chakra based attacks. A technique of that level won't work on me" the Oto teen boasted.

"Maybe this will" Hayama said.

Before the teen could properly react Hayama unsheathed his blade and called out 'Shinkūken – Vacuum Sword'.

Gusts of wind flew at Kidōmaru before he could do anything he was sent flying back into a tree with serious force causing the tree to actually break and fall over pinning the teen. Kidōmaru coughed up blood as he lay against the undamaged portion of the tree trunk. He focused and tried to get up first using his extra limbs to remove the tree trunk from his legs and then trying to stand, but only barely managed.

When he looked for the Konoha-nin the only thing he found was the tip of a sword breaking through the armour still covering his chest and piercing his lungs. Kidōmaru was down, but not out as he used his blood to call on his summon Kyodaigumo. The summons was quickly dispatched as Hayama used another vacuum sword attack to buffet it against another tree with enough force to dispel it and since he was so far away the threads that erupted from the spider never reached him.

"You should give up kid. Take your team and go back home. You don't need to die today for a guy that's probably trying to find some way to recoup what he spent on you" Hayama offers.

"Screw you old man. Oto ninja's never quit on a job" Kidōmaru retorted.

Before anything else could be said Kidōmaru found himself crushed under the weight of several trees. Hayama had used his Vacuum sword technique to cut down the trees surrounding them. He was sure the teen was out of the fight and decided to catch up with his team.

"Stay put kid. With any luck your team will be back soon to help dig you out of there" Hayama says before leaving.

The muffled shouts of rage Kidōmaru threw at him never reached his ears. Kidōmaru would have used his curse seal and easily gotten out from under his wooden prison, but Orochimaru had warned him directly against using the curse seal. Orochimaru needed Konoha to forget about him for the upcoming invasion to work and he couldn't have a curse seal warrior revealing himself in the vicinity of any Konoha-nin or his plans might be derailed. Even the slightest misstep could ruin everything he had been working for.

Kidōmaru knew what would happen to him if it was reported he had used the seal to fight against a Konoha team. He didn't wish that fate on anyone. So he just kept trying to use his extra limbs to get himself free little by little. With any luck he could catch up before Dosu and his teammates were defeated and complete the mission.

While the team leaders had been fighting Team 4 had been playing a game of ambush with the Sound genin. Every time they got close to the jerks the Oto team would assault them with some disorienting attack and then run. It was getting really old, really fast. That little bell trick the girl, Kin, used was really annoying and effective but it was that Zaku kid's wind jutsu that was really proving troublesome to deal with.

Both Naruto and Tomaru did think having a jutsu like that would be cool and with both able to use wind chakra they thought on how to recreate it. There were 4 types of wind ninjutsu or so Hayama had told the both of them.

There were blunt wide spread attacks mainly meant for defense or to throw the opponent off balance. They could do damage, but not a lot. These were mostly meant either as distractions or to create an opening for the user. They were also handy if one was out numbered due to how wide spread they could be.

The second were slicing, cutting, or piercing type of wind jutsu. These were mainly offensive in nature and among some of the strongest and most difficult jutsu one could learn. One hit with one of these jutsu's and the opponent was usually done for. The only problem came in that it was hard to focus the wind nature chakra enough to get it slice or pierce an opponent and there weren't many known to have been made.

The third type were like the first type but more focused on a single area or enemy. They used wind pressure to do damage and could cause a great deal of internal injuries instead of the concussive type of injuries the more wide spread ones dealt.

The fourth and most difficult type to learn were the vacuum wind jutsu. Actually Hayama theorized they were the hardest type of jutsu to learn period save for kekkai genkai techniques and sealing techniques. Hayama admitted he had been trying to learn how to perform the vacuum style wind techniques since he had become a genin himself and only got it down after he had been promoted to jōnin with help from another wind user who was proficient in the advanced techniques. For some reason he would not tell them who the person was that helped him, but he did promise to help Tomaru reach the same level he was with wind manipulation and the two vacuum techniques he knew.

Zaku's seemed like the third type, but both boys also knew wind jutsu and wanted to test which one was stronger. When Zaku popped up again they were ready and both Konoha boys fired off a Fūton: Daitoppa – Wind Release: Great Breakthrough at the boy from Sound, which he countered with multiple blasts of Zankūha – Decapitating Airwaves.

Both attacks clashed, but far to close to Zaku and the wind attacks were able to break through and shove Zaku through a tree directly behind him. The Konoha trio thought his teammates would help, but surprisingly they just ignored him and attacked again this time with Dosu revealing his melody arm to attack with his jutsu Kyōmeisen – Resonating Echo Drill.

The assault on their ears caused the Konoha team once again to fall back and recover as none of them could fully focus or move. The two Oto-nin tried to take advantage of their situation by throwing kunai at the slightly disoriented Konoha team, but each managed to evade. Although Naruto received a cut on his forearm, but it wasn't deep and it was noted by everyone that he didn't scream or even make a small sound of discomfort.

The two remaining Oto genin the continued their ambush tactic and left the area including their teammate forcing the Leaf genin to follow them once more. However, the Leaf genin took the time to strip and tie up the unconscious Oto genin. And then came up with a plan to deal with the remaining enemies.

Fuki was the one that pointed out Kin would be the easiest to take out and that she wasn't much of a threat. So far it had mostly been the two male Oto genin that had attacked while the girl peppered them with senbon and triggered her bell technique when they got too close. So Fuki wanted to focus on taking out Dosu, but Naruto had a plan to deal with them both.

Catching up to the Oto genin that had slowed down it seems to lure them into chasing them Team 4 moved faster like they were going to attack. Kin was the one to attack using her senbon to force the Konoha genin to back off, but this time they didn't. Instead they pressed forward letting the senbon hit them.

When Kin moved to activate her bell ringing technique she saw that the genin were still moving towards her, which was when Dosu attacked again with his melody arm. Both Oto genin were taken by surprise when the Konoha trio stumbled and then burst into water revealing them to be clones. The next thing Dosu knew he was being punched in the face by Fuki so hard that he flew through the air and crashed into the ground creating a crater.

Kin suffered the same fate this time by Tomaru although she just hit the ground and bounced up slightly a few times before coming to a stop. Despite the hit not being as strong the fall to the ground and repeated hits to the back of her head on the ground knocked Kin unconscious and out of the fight.

Dosu was still not out of the fight as he slowly stood up and made his way out of the shallow crater his body created. That was when he saw a fast moving blur coming at him only to be to slow to block the fist that hit him right on the mouth. Dosu stumbled backwards and held his mouth as blood seeped through his bandages. He didn't get time to recover as he was hit again on the cheek and then kicked in the stomach. The last blow he remembered was a hard blow to the top of his head as he was kneeling over.

Hayama arrived just as Naruto finished tying Dosu up after he had been stripped. Kin was also stripped and tied up by Fuki as she didn't trust Tomaru or Naruto to do it without getting handsy. Not that she really thought either of her teammates would do something like that, but they were boys and she felt it was her duty as a female and kunoichi to protect her fellow female and kunoichi even if she was the enemy. And unlike her teammates she let Kin keep her shirt on although she made sure to check underneath the shirt and through the small bra to make sure she wasn't hiding any weapons there that would normally be overlooked.

Hayama congratulated his team on defeating the enemy genin although he did question why the went so far as to strip the enemy of their clothes before tying them up. The genin just blushed and made a few excuses hiding that it was mostly out of revenge for the Oto genin pulling those ambush tactics pissing them off. Hayama let it go since they need to hurry and get to the bridge. He was hoping they still had time and that the Oto team hadn't delayed them too much.

When they arrived at the bridge however, both Sasuke and Kiba were laying on the bridge dead inside a dome of mirrors although Hayama noted a lack of blood that was on or surrounding the bodies although the Uchiha kid looked messed up. The Haruno girl was the last one standing, but barely despite not seeming to have been attacked as she was standing beside Tazuna. Thankfully the Bridge Builder was still unharmed although he seemed a bit shaken.

When Hayama searched for Kakashi he found him barely holding off Zabuza. He knew Kakashi could handle it, but a little help wouldn't hurt and hopefully the masked ninja was worn out from facing the two male genin of Team 7. So he had Tomaru who was itching to join the fight and Naruto go fight Zabuza's accomplice while Fuki was ordered to help Sakura protect Tazuna while he went to assist Kakashi.

Hayama sunshined past the dome of ice mirrors and the masked ninja that tried to stop him but was forced back as Naruto threw several kunai at him/her. The boys quickly moved to surround the ice dome and the enemy ninja. Looking inside the dome of ice Naruto could tell they put up a good fight if the cracks, dents, and chips in some of the mirrors were anything to go by. There was also slight signs of melting like they had been hit by a couple of fire jutsu.

Tomaru was focused squarely on the enemy but had trouble telling if it was a kunoichi or not, but figured it didn't matter. He needed to help Kiba and Sasuke even though he never liked Sasuke or Kiba that much. They were Leaf ninja and as a future Hokage he would also look out for his comrades.

"Who are you and why are you interfering?" the masked enemy asked.

"We are here to protect Tazuna-san and help protect this bridge that will free this country from Gatō's control. As for who we are this is Naruto and I am Tomaru the next Hokage!" Tomaru shouted introducing them.

Naruto sighed a bit, but nodded. If he was truthful he enjoyed Tomaru's way of doing things and some times wished he was more like him … some times.

"I ask that you step aside Tomaru-san and allow me to complete my mission. If you do I promise no more harm will come to your friends or teammates" the masked nin offers.

"Never! We won't allow Gatō to ruin any more lives!" Tomaru responds.

"I think you should re-think the situation here … umm what's your name?" Naruto asks.

"My name is Haku" the masked enemy responds.

"Wow … I kinda didn't think you would actually answer me. Anyway Haku, you should see you are out numbered. Even if you defeat the two of us, there is still our teammate plus Haruno-san guarding our client as well. Plus your leader isn't faring to well against Hatake-san and Hayama-sensei" Naruto states.

Haku looked further down the bridge and what the boy said was true. Zabuza was starting to lose against the combined might of the two jōnin. Haku had no illusions that Zabuza could beat both of the jōnin. The hope had been that the team Gatō hired would be able to take care of the extra team or give them enough time to deal with whatever team got to the bridge and kill the old bridge builder. It seems the Oto team were not worth the money Gatō spent to hire them, not that she thought Zabuza would be surprised.

"I'm sorry, but my master wants the bridge builder dead and for him I will not fail my mission even if I must kill you to do so. Please forgive me, but I must do this for my precious person" Haku tells them.

"Tomaru I'll retrieve Inuzuka-san and Uchiha-san. Can you cover me?" Naruto asked.

"I got your back bro, believe in me!" Tomaru shouted.

Naruto nodded having got used to Tomaru yelling his catchphrase or motto. He then waited for the right moment before dashing into the dome to retrieve the two bodies. As soon as he did the mirrors shone brightly blinding him and Tomaru stopping Tomaru from helping. Naruto was knocked onto his back.

"Your kids are done for just like those other brats" Zabuza taunts.

"I see … a bloodline technique that boosts the users speed" Hayama deduces.

"Haku is the last holder of the Hyōton bloodline. Your brats don't stand a chance. Not after the training I have given her. Not when she uses that technique. She is unbeatable and those useless brats of yours don't stand a chance against her" Zabuza brags.

Naruto stood up as he looked at Haku and the mirrors intently. He made another move forward only to have Haku pelt him with senbon needles. Everyone on the bridge was surprised when he managed to doge and deflect most of the needles with surprising accuracy and speed.

"I see … you use your bloodline to create these mirrors, but all they are doing is helping you to amplify your speed. It's just you I am fighting and not a bunch of clones" Naruto analyzes.

"Close, my mirrors reflect my speed allowing me to travel at speeds close to the speed of light. Now that you know that I ask that you give up. My technique is invincible and you will only force me to stay my heart and kill you if I must" Haku says.

"You have a pretty voice kunoichi-san, even when you threaten me" Naruto says.

Everyone on the bridge falters hearing the unexpected compliment.

"Naruto you baka! Don't compliment the enemy! Kick her butt Cha! Avenge Sasuke-kun!" Sakura shouted.

Everyone just looked at the pink hair kunoichi and then back to the mirrors.

"Not how I would say it, but it is time to get serious Naruto! You and Tomaru need to think and find a way to destroy the mirrors" Hayama orders.

"Come on Naruto, let's do it!" Tomaru shouted.

"What the loud mouth said" Fuki adds.

"Hey!" Tomaru shouts at her.

"It seems I have no choice. You are fast Haku-chan, but I am faster" Naruto states.

Before the others on the bridge could ask what he was talking about Naruto held the Boar hand seal and in less than a second he was standing beside Tazuna with the bodies of Kiba and Sasuke held on both shoulders. He quickly and unceremoniously dumped both boys on the cement floor of the bridge.

This time everyone including Team 4 stood with jaws dropped.

"Wh-wha-what the hell was that!" Sakura shouted for everyone.

The others also wanted to know what the heck that was. Although Kakashi mistakenly thought the boy had recreated his father's technique some how.

"You should remove the needles from their bodies. Haku-chan only knocked them out, not kill them" Naruto says.

He didn't have to say anything else to Sakura as she dove on Sasuke removing all the needles she could find and just like Naruto stated he started to cough indicating he was alive. Which made Sakura shout even louder and push him into her chest.

This left Fuki to the task of removing the needles from Kiba and his puppy as they also coughed a bit indicating they were okay. Naruto seeing that he had been right disappeared again and when he reappeared he was back in front of the mirror Haku was in. Before she could move to another mirror Naruto punched at it, but was surprised to find the mirror didn't break.

He punched and kicked the mirror a few more times only to have nothing happened so he disappeared again only to reappear outside the dome again. Standing beside him was Tomaru.

"N-n-nartuo! What was that?" Tomaru questioned.

"I would also like to know that Naruto-kun?" Hayama interjects.

"As would I" Kakashi butts in.

"We don't have time for this, and I think I hear something at the other end of the bridge" Naruto states.

Everyone turned their heads towards the end of the bridge as Zabuza let up a little on the fog to find Gatō and a small army of thugs standing smugly looking at the assembled ninja. With them was the Team from Oto also grinning at getting another shot at the Konoha team.

"Well, well, well what do we have here. It's seems like the terrible, ferocious, mighty demon of Mist is nothing but a cute little devil now isn't he boys" Gatō says confidently from infront of his men.

"What's the meaning of this Gatō?" Zabuza questioned the midget.

"What do you think … you ninja are way to expensive. I hired you so I could avoid the expense of hiring ninja from an official ninja village, but you botched the entire thing and forced me to hire these four. I never intended to pay you Zabuza, but if I collect the bounty on your head then I can recover what I lost hiring these 4 and even make a profit. I might get even more for those Leaf ninja. I hear Iwa pays top dollar for any dead Konoha ninja's body they can get their hands on" Gatō threatens.

Everyone on the bridge tenses hearing the evil businessman's plan for them. When Gatō takes a loot at three kunoichi his beady little eyes light up for a second before he orders his men forward.

"Kill the men, but bring the girls to me. For a fee I might even let some of you have a turn with them before I'm through with them" the short busineman says.

"Hey! Who do you think you are!" Tomaru shouted.

Gatō just laughed at the boy and hid behind his men as they started to charge.

"Naruto, Fuki, Tomaru form up around me! Tazuna you should run back to the village and go home. We'll come find you after this is done" Hayama shouts.

Tazuna didn't need to be told twice and quickly took off in the direction of the village. Although he wasn't going home. He wasn't sure if the ninja could handle things on the bridge on their own so he was going to get some help himself. If nothing else this would be the day it all ends.

On the bridge Haku dissolved her ice mirrors back into water to use her jutsu. She also brought up more water on to the bridge to help Zabuza-sama and the others. She then made a large amount of water drop down on the bridge near the thugs and Oto-nin and froze it. As the thugs started to run at them they started slipping and falling making everyone laugh even the Oto-nin.

"Pull yourselves together and get them! I'm not paying you to make fools of yourselves! And you Oto-nin stop lazing around and do something already. I'm paying you top dollar and I expect results or your Kage will hear about this when I demand a refund!" Gatō shouted.

"As if you could. Our leader would kill you and feed your body to his snakes, that is if he didn't use you in a few of his experiments!" Zaku boasts.

He was quickly elbowed in the stomach, six times by Kidōmaru.

"Shut it you idiot. No one is supposed to know about leader-sama" he harshly whispers to the teen.

"We're out of here Gatō" Kidōmaru tells the little man.

"What!? I paid you to do a job and I expect you to do it!" Gatō bellows.

"We don't care it's suicide to go up against 3 jōnin, that ice chick, and 2 genin teams on our own. We're leaving, let's go" Kidōmaru orders.

Kidōmaru didn't like abandoning a mission like this, but all Oto-nin were under orders by Orochimaru to keep a low profile. Fighting a battle against Sharingan Kakashi and Zabuza the 'Demon' of the Mist on a bridge for all to see was anything but low key. Plus the idiot Zaku may have given away their leaders identity and he would need to report that as soon as possible.

With the Oto team gone the thugs weren't feeling all that brave anymore as they also knew they didn't stand a chance against the two teams from Konoha or Zabuza and his apprentice. The only thing keeping them from running away as well was the promise of all of that money.

Gatō didn't like this at all. This wasn't his plan. Everyone was supposed to kill each other and then he would not only be able to skip out on paying the Oto team the rest of their fee, but also collect the bounty on all the heads of the ninja. They were ninja they were sure to have enemies and bounties he could collect and become even richer.

But he could see the look in his men's eyes. They were close to abandoning him as well and he didn't like to think about what would happen if they did. He had done this village no favors or spared them any mercy. He wasn't a chump and didn't believe for a second they would show him any so he said what he needed to get his men going again.

"The first one to bring me Zabuza's head gets 1 million ryo!" Gatō shouted.

He wasn't surprised when the men immediately grew savage looks and ran across the ice to take the ex-Mist shiniboi's head. He figured if he gave them one opponent to fixate on they wouldn't be as scared and maybe the Konoha ninja would let them take Zabuza out before he could then turn his men against them.

He was forgetting one thing though. Zabuza was beaten, bloodied, and hurt but he wasn't out and he had full use of all his limbs. Plus, Haku while tired was still ready to go and back him up. And the businessman obviously didn't know Konoha ninja at all if he thought they were going to sit by idly while his men slaughtered the two.

"Charge!" Gatō yelled.

"Naruto, Tomaru use the technique I taught you to take some of them out" Hayama ordered.

Naruto knew what his sensei was getting at and Tomaru did when he saw Naruto charging up a kunai with wind chakra using Chakra Flow. When they were both ready the flung them hoping it would work as Hayama charged his sword and used a full powered Shinkūken.

Haku joined in as she threw a volley of ice needles at the charging thugs, but only aimed to knock them out or cripple them instead of kill. Naruto and Tomaru's attacks hit one thug and then pierced through him to hit 3 more each before they stopped imbedded into the stomach of the last thug they hit whom also fell over. While Hayama's attack sliced up a good deal of the thugs.

Kakashi used the 'Kagebunshin – Shadow Clone' Technique to send his own small army against them. Since they could use chakra the KB's navigated the ice just fine sticking to the icy surface as they ran faster than the thugs could and began to take them down just like Haku aiming to incapacitate and not kill.

Zabuza angry at the betrayal soon charged to take Gatō out. He made his way through the thugs as Haku provided cover with a little help from the Konoha teams. It was all over in less than ten minutes, which was ten minutes before Tazuna showed up with help. When he looked over his bridge he noticed a little damage and the blood, but there were no bodies as unknown to him they had been pushed into the water.

"What happened? Where is Gatō and his thugs?" Tazuna inquired.

"Zabuza was able to kill him and then he and his partner took off. We were just about to head off and find you when you showed" Kakashi tells him.

Tazuna and the men he brought with him immediately broke into cheers. The men then raced around the village telling everyone the good news. It wasn't long before a party started with everyone in town celebrating. Teams 4 and 7 were worn out from fighting and staid at Tazuna's forgoing the party where Tsunami fixed them a meal fit for hero's with a little assistance from thankful villagers.

During the next few days it literally felt like Wave was springing to life as the village was slowly recovering. The bridge would be done in a few days and then the Konoha teams would leave. The only one who wasn't happy or excited seemed to be Tsunami's son before Kakashi talked to him some more.

Naruto also wasn't all that happy as both teams tried at different times to grill him about what happened on the bridge. He didn't care about Team 7 much although their sensei was acting like the blond should remember him or know him some how. Naruto just reminded them he wasn't apart of their team and didn't have to answer to any of them, something which Sakura didn't like as she tried and failed to hit him.

For his own team Naruto promised he would tell them when they back home and alone. After that nothing much happened except Team 4 continued their training until Zabuza's accomplice showed up without her mask or disguise.

"Zabuza-sama wanted me to give this to the citizens of Wave" she said as she handed Kakashi a scroll.

Kakashi took the scroll and unsealed it's contents. Inside of it were a bunch of deeds and millions of ryo. The Konoha teams looked at the ice wielding teen in surprise.

"This is Zabuza-sama's way of apologizing for his part in helping Gatō oppress the citizens of Wave. This is some of what was left in the safe Gatō had hidden in his home" Haku informed them.

"Some? Does that mean there was more and Zabuza is taking it for himself?" Kakashi questioned.

Haku nodded but said, "I am sorry but Zabuza-sama hopes to use the money we have taken to liberate our own home village. I am sorry, but we need it and hope you will forgive us" Haku says with a bow.

"It's alright young lady. I understand and I hope your master is able to accomplish his goal now" Tazuna says diplomatically.

"Thank you, we will forever be in your debts. I will be going now as Zabuza-sama is ready to leave" Haku tells them.

"Hey wait!" Naruto shouts.

Haku turns in surprise to see the blonde teen in front of her.

"Umm … I … just wanted to say I had fun fighting you. I hope to see you again some time" Naruto says.

"I … hope so too Naruto-kun" Haku responds.

She then quickly reached forward and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before quickly leaving in a sunshine.

Naruto smiled goofly at the direction she left in. Well, until Tomaru and the rest started giving him a hard time. The next day both teams were at the finished bridge walking across it on their way home. The citizens of Wave came out and cheered for the teams that freed them from the tyrant Gatō. All of them waved back as they walked on.

Naruto smiled when he thought back on the mission. This was the farthest he had ever been from Konoha and once Gatō was dealt with Wave had been a nice place. He planned to visit some time in the future to see what had become of the village.

The others were also thinking of their time during this mission. Although both jōnin looked intently at Naruto and then each other before looking forward. Hayama knew he would have to talk with the other jōnin and Hokage-sama as well once they got back to the village. He just hoped Naruto would tell him the truth so that he could satisfy any suspicions and keep Naruto safe.

As the teams walked on they couldn't know it, but danger was in their future.

* * *

**I want to thank everyone for reading this latest chapter of Speed Unmatched. This is a challenged issued by Narutoenthusiast. For anyone interested in the challenge or others he has check out u/1646974/Narutoenthusiast  
**


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto**

**Chapter 11  
**

Team's 4 & 7 walked through the gates of Konoha. Most of the genin were anxious to get home for different reasons. Tomaru wanted to tell his family all about how he singlehandedly bested an entire team of enemy ninja. Fuki and Sakura wanted to take nice long baths and finally relax after such a stressful mission. Sasuke had awakened his Sharingan during the battle against Haku and was eager to get home and scour the family library for jutsu and tips on strengthening his dojutsu.

Naruto was the only one not excited about being back in Konoha. He knew Hayama was expecting answers as was team 7's jōnin-sensei for some reason beyond him at the moment. He was sure the two were going to tell the Hokage about what happened. He was just glad everyone was still mostly confused on what he did so they couldn't tell the Hokage he had a bloodline.

That only left Naruto with the problem of if he wanted to tell the man or not. Naruto was not sure what his obligations were on this.

'Was he supposed to have told the Hokage he had a bloodline?'

'He didn't lie about having one or not. Would he be in trouble?'

'What could the old man do to him exactly for not reporting that he had a kekkei genkai?'

'It wasn't like there was some sign-up sheet with a box that said check 'yes' if you had a kekkei genkai'

'Why do I even care. They would know if they didn't ignore me or shun me like they did. I never tried to hide it in the first place. No one bothered to notice or care about me'

The two jōnin were a bit anxious although they hid it well even from each other. Of course their anxiousness was for different reasons. Kakashi was anxious to insert himself in the blonde's life and assume some kind of distant big brother role. Someone he could look up to, but only occasionally seek advice or guidance from.

Hayama was anxious because he already hid the fact the kid had a summon contract. He wasn't too worried about that, because there was no guideline on reporting something like that. He knew he should have, but there was nothing saying he had too and he did promise the kid.

Things were different now that it seemed Naruto was hiding even more from him and the village. This would cause suspicion to fall on both of them especially when he would have to add that Fuki also had one that was a result of a recent mission. He had omitted that entirely from the report, which could be seen a traitorous act but only by the hardcore sect.

Both groups walked into the mission office and wrote out their after action mission report. Naruto tried to persuade everyone one last time that it was a simple shunshin, but neither sensei bought it so his plea fell on deaf ears. Thankfully they did not have to face the Hokage as he was busy with his council and unable to see them. The jōnin let the genin go, but Team 4 would have a meeting the next day unlike Team 7 which was given the week off.

The next day Team 4 plus Hatake-san were standing in Training Ground Twenty-Three and were looking at Naruto awaiting an explanation.

"Umm … not to be rude but why is Hatake-san here?" Naruto asked.

"Maa, maa Naruto-kun, I told you to call me Kakashi-sensei from now on remember" Kakashi replied.

Hayama and Team 4 looked at the man strangely for a minute before Hayama tried to get things back on track.

"Look Naruto, I'm sorry but Hatake-san made a good point. This happened on a joint mission with his team and I don't need to tell you this but I suspect at some point we will both be summoned to answer questions about the report we gave. Hatake-san does have a right to be here so that we can confirm what you tell us and please don't lie to us" Hayama tells him.

"*Sigh* What do you want to know?" Naruto asked.

He ran his left hand through his hair absently put off at having to do this. Naruto wasn't sure at what point this became a secret, but he liked that no one knew about what he could do and he didn't want everyone to know. Why should everyone know his business anyway.

"You know what we want to know Naruto. You displayed an uncommon amount of speed on the bridge when you engaged that enemy kunoichi and rescued Inuzuka-san and Uchiha-san. How were you able to move that fast?" Hayama questioned.

Everyone looked at Naruto intently.

"Fine, I have a kekkei genkai. I believe it's called Swift release" Naruto says.

"Swift release?" Hayama questioned.

"I read about it in an old history book about Clans. One had the Swift release bloodline, but there was little written about them other than they died out for some reason" Naruto explains.

"When did you learn about this?" Hayama continued.

"On my birthday before I started the academy" Naruto answers.

"Why didn't you tell anyone?" Hayama asked.

Kakashi was also especially interested in this answer as shown by the fact he hadn't even taken his orange book out yet.

"No one asked me. Before I joined this team no one even bothered to talk to me to get to know me. Even Iruka-san ignored me in class until my final year of the academy. Before that everyone just acted like I wasn't there no matter what I did to get attention. So there wasn't anybody to tell" Naruto tells them.

At his explanation both Tomaru and Fuki tried to think back during their academy years and realized they too had ignored Naruto. Tomaru because his parents warned him against interacting with the blond kid although they never said anything bad about him or gave a reason why. Fuki, because like most of the females at the academy she was into Sasuke and being apart of the in-crowd. The others ignored Naruto so she ignored him too.

They both held their heads down upon realizing that. Kakashi also somewhat lamented his choice to ignore his sensei's kid, but the Sandiame said they should leave him be and let him grow on his own without interference. Hayama didn't know how to feel about it. He knew of Naruto or at least the demon container, but never ran into the kid to his knowledge. Konoha was a big place.

"Alright, I guess that explains most of the problem. Is there anything else you are hiding?" Hayama asked.

"I train before and after Team Training on Training Ground 3" Naruto answers.

"Anything else?" He asked again.

"You know about the summons so … no" Naruto answers.

"Summons? What summons?" Kakashi asked.

Hayama slapped his face in frustration. He was really hoping Naruto would avoid mentioning that in mixed company, but it seems like that wasn't possible anymore. Naruto also blushed slightly in embarrassment when he realized Hayama hadn't wanted him to reveal that particular secret.

"Naruto is a summoner for the Cheetah clan" Hayama answers for Naruto.

"Cheetah clan?" Kakashi questioned.

"I am their first summoner" Naruto says answering the unasked question.

"You are full of surprises aren't you Naruto-kun" Kakashi says offhandedly.

"I got what I need. I'll leave your team alone to finish your meeting now. I hope we can talk some more again Naruto-kun" Kakashi says before leaving.

Now that they were alone Team 4 talked some more before dropping the issue of Naruto's bloodline. Hayama decided to call it a day, but said they would meet again tomorrow to train. Everyone went their own way which left Naruto alone once again, but he decided against training just yet. He had already trained before the meeting and would wait a few hours before doing any more.

This left him with nothing to do though so he decided to walk through the village. Unfortunately for Hayama he wasn't as lucky. As soon as the team meeting ended an ANBU informed him that the Hokage wanted to speak with him. Hayama knew Kakashi was probably receiving the same message if he already hadn't.

With a nod to the ANBU that quickly left Hayama used a sunshine to reach the Hokage mansion. He then walked up the stairs until he reached the level the Hokage's office was on and then announced his arrival to the Hokage's secretary. He really had hoped he could get a few minutes just to gather his thoughts, but apparently the Hokage was waiting on him and he was sent on in to the room. If he didn't know already he now had no doubt what this meeting would be about.

"Take a seat Shirakuma-san" the Hokage directs.

Hayama took the seat in front of the old Hokage and befitting a man of his rank any anxiety he may have been feeling was well hid. His face was the picture of calm as he sat tall in the chair.

"I called you here Shirakumo-san to explain a few inconsistencies in the reports that I received about your last mission with Team 7" the Hokage says not beating around the bush.

Hayama nodded at the statement still not giving anything away.

"I'd like you to tell me in your own words about what happened on this mission and please do not leave out any detail" The Hokage says.

While Hayama was being grilled Naruto was walking through the streets of Konoha. As usual he was ignored as the populace went about their day like he didn't exist. It was fine with him really at this point he had even begun to like it a little. His solitude was interrupted by an unexpected source.

"Uzumaki" said one Shikamaru Nara.

Naruto noted that the boy was keeping his lazy, aloof demeanor yet he seemed intent on something. He responded back with a neutral look of his own.

"Hello Nara-san" Naruto replied.

Both boy's walked in silence a little ways before Shikamaru addressed him again.

"I want you to stay away from Chōji" Shikamaru says.

Naruto stopped walking as he heard this and Shikamaru calmly turned to face the slightly older boy.

"I'm not sure I heard you correctly Nara-san. Could you repeat what you just said?" Naruto asked.

"Why must you be so troublesome … I want you to stay away from Chōji and my home" The Nara youth adds.

"Chōji is my friend. We hang out, eat food, and read manga. Why do you care if we hang out?" Naruto asked.

"Chōji is my best friend and we understand each other. I don't need you messing that up by trying to change him" Shikamaru throws back.

Naruto stared at the black haired boy curiously for a moment. Shikamaru didn't back down and continued to stare at the boy with an irritated expression. He couldn't be bothered to do more than that and actually look angry, but he was.

"What makes you think I am trying to change him?" Naruto asked.

"You are making him do stuff he normally wouldn't do" Shika argued.

"We have only met a few times. I haven't tried to make him do anything. What's really going on here? Do you have a problem with me?" Naruto asked pointedly.

"Yeah … I have a problem. You made me look bad. First at the academy, then you try to befriend Chōji for no reason at all, and now I have to listen to my mom lecture me every day because of you" Shikamaru responds.

"I don't even remember talking to you at the academy. You were always asleep. And I thought Chōji was a nice guy, because he was always trying to make friends with others despite how mean they were to him always calling him names and bullying him. I thought he would be nice to have as a friend. And your mom was a nice lady … I'm not sure what your problem is, but it doesn't seem to be with me" Naruto says strongly.

Frankly he didn't need this crap. He didn't even know this kid. This was all very strange.

"Whatever, just remember what I said and stay away from him … and my mom" Shikamaru throws back.

It was still very weird especially since neither had been yelling despite the tense atmosphere. Naruto watched as the lazy kid then walked off slowly with some kind of stick in him mouth and his hands in his pocket. This was all very annoying. He just walked the other way not even caring to see Shikamaru turn to look back at him and make one last threat before angrily noting he was all alone on the deserted street.

Back with Hayama and the Hokage he had just finished giving the full report.

"So let me get this straight … Naruto has been hiding a kekkei genkai and a summons contract which he revealed to you, but you failed to report. Am I correct Jōnin?" The Sandiame questioned.

"Yes Hokage-sama" Hayama responds firmly.

The look on Hayama's face betrayed no emotion as he kept his eyes on the old Kage.

"Tell me why I shouldn't strip you of your command, demote you back to chūnin, and place you on permanent guard duty. I'm sure Hagane-san and Kamazuki-san won't mind the added company. The Barrier Team is always looking for new applicants" The old man threatens.

Even Ibiki would pale at such a threat and Hayama was no different.

"I beg your forgiveness Hokage-sama. Naruto asked me to keep what he told me about his summons in confidence and I didn't want to break his trust. He assured me he would eventually let it be known he had gained a contract and I didn't find out about the Kekkai Genkai until he revealed it on the bridge. He confirmed it just before the ANBU found me" Hayama explains.

The old man sat in his chair and puffed on his pipe as he studied the man in front of him. He had no reason to believe Shirokumo-san was telling him a lie. If anything it just confirmed his suspicion that Naruto was hiding things from him and what the team he had trailing them reported earlier.

For a normal shinobi that would be understandable and expected. Naruto was not a normal shinobi by any standards. He couldn't allow the boy to continue to keep these kind of secrets, but there was nothing he could actually do about it.

'He seems to trust Shirakumo-san and his team at least with some of his secrets. Still, this could be dangerous if this continues. Naruto should feel like he could trust me' the old man thought.

He never once took his withering stare off of Hayama delighting in making the experienced ninja uncomfortable. Some times in being Hokage it was the little things that made the job bearable.

"I'll over look this for now Shirakumo-san, but from now on I expect accurate and detailed reports from you and your team. Allow Naruto-kun for now to keep his secrets, but if he confides in you further I want to know about anything he tells you, understand" The Hokage orders.

"Hai, Hokage-sama" Hayama says with a deep bow.

"You can join us now Kakashi" The Hokage says.

And as he said Hatake came out from behind the curtains of his office window seemingly reading his book once more.

"And put away the book or you will be joining Kotetsu and Izumo" the Hokage adds.

Kakashi put the book back in his pocket faster than even the Hokage could follow after the threat was levied.

"Good, now I will inform the both of you that the Chūnin Exams are in Konoha this year and will commence at the beginning of the month. I have already informed Asuma and Kurenai of the upcoming event. I was willing to allow the rookie teams to make their own decisions, but in light of recent revelations I want all of the genin to participate" The Hokage tells them.

This of course alarm both Hayame and Kakashi. Kakashi didn't even bother to try to look aloof at the news.

"Excuse me Hokage-sama, but the nominations and participation of the genin teams is supposed to be voluntary is it not?" Hayama questioned.

The Hokage looked at both shinobi again before taking about puff of his pipe. He then turned to look out his window.

"That is correct and I will not force the genin to participate even Naruto. But … you will nominate your teams when I ask for them and inform your teams. You are only to inform them after I have formally asked for your nominations … am I understood" The Hokage says.

Both respond with a crisp, "Hai".

But Kakashi had to ask.

"Forgive me Hokage-sama, but what good would nominating them do if they can still refuse?" The copy-nin asked.

The Hokage took on a look of deep thought before answering.

"Once informed I believe the team members will push each other to join the competition. Young Sasuke for example no doubt still feels pressure to measure up to Itachi and Sakura-chan won't want to disappoint him, and Kiba's to brash not to respond to the challenge as well forcing Sasuke's hand if he proves to be reluctant" The Sandiame analyzes.

"Yamanka will take care of Team 10 ensuring that they will enter. Team 8 is actually the most troubling to figure out. Of the three genin only one has any chance of making it past the first round, but even that would be beneficial. However, since the Hyūga girl has confidence issue and the Kurama heiress is still working through her physical ailments the Aburame will wisely look to abstain from the competition. It is Kurenai herself that will push them into competing as she herself feels pressure to prove she's as good as the three of you male sensei's" Sarutobi adds.

"What about my team Hokage-sama? Naruto is rather difficult to predict?" Hayama asks.

"Tomaru's dream has always been to become Hokage and it wasn't so long ago that a young Naruto shared a similar dream with me. He may have forgotten or moved on from that dream, but I believe in the end he will support Tomaru-kun" The Hokage answers.

Both men nod at the Hokage-s thinking even if it secretly worried them.

"Now you have a month to get your teams prepared as best as possible. You may want to cut back on the missions during this time and focus more on training. You are both dismissed" The Hokage tells them.

Both jōnin immediately vanish leaving the old man to his thoughts. Things were becoming more difficult. The situation with Naruto was at an all-time low. The old man knew he had neglected his duty to the boy and now he wasn't sure if there was enough time to reconnect and guide the boy along the proper path.

'Perhaps it's time Jiraiya-kun meets his godson' Sarutobi thought.

**2 weeks later**

Team 4 spent the next two weeks since the mission to Wave training. Hayama took to increasing their training by exposing them to new aspects of being a shinobi while still working on refining what they already knew. He had also continued their work with meditation, which was still slow going unfortunately.

One of the things he introduced them to was poisons. For that he asked for help from a Tokubetsu Jōnin named Mitarashi Anko. Together the two jōnin taught the genin about the application of poison, different types of poison, how to recognize poison, how to defend against poison, and lastly how to treat yourself if poisoned on a mission or away from medical help. It was the longest and scariest week of the genin's life.

The genin were glad to see the woman and her many snakes go away Friday. Hayama even apologized for putting them through such an experience by letting them have the whole weekend off. Still, they had learned a lot from the woman during the week and would remember the lessons.

Although it did poke at a sore spot for Tomaru who felt like he was reminded everyday he didn't have a summon as Anko liberally used hers and the day before had Naruto and Fuki call on their summons to have a 3-way spar. Anko held back on summoning one of her larger snakes even to level the playing field since Naruto and Fuki were still new to summoning. Hayama also informed the Hokage about Fuki, which further shocked the old man at the growing similarities between his genin team and Hayama's.

The other areas that would be touched on were medical ninjutsu, bukijutsu, shurikenjutsu, and introduced them briefly to fūinjutsu. Hayama's plan was to have other jōnin that were more familiar with these areas to help him teach the genin and perhaps expand on what he knew as well. He hoped they could get in 3 solid weeks of training between a few missions, changing the focus and teacher so that his kids would be prepared for anything they would come across during the Exams.

Now it was Monday and Team 4 stood in the Hokage's office as he gave each member an appraising look, taking a bit longer with Naruto than the others although he hid it well.

"Team 4 reporting for a mission, Hokage-sama" Hayama says.

"Alright, we have a mission to babysit Lady Sasaki's three children and a mission to walk the Inuzuka dogs. Which one will you take?" The old man offered.

"Actually Hokage-sama, I was thinking a C-rank mission would be more beneficial to my team" Hayama interjects.

This cause the three genin to look at their sensei with surprise since they were sure they were back to dirty diaper duty once more, but were pleased at the change. The Sandaime meanwhile puffed on his pipe in thought for a minute before giving consent.

"I think I have something appropriate for your team …" The Hokage says.

A chūnin quickly retrieved a scroll after the Hokage gave him a nod. Unraveling the scroll the Hokage looked it over before handing it to Hayama. And then Hayama looked it over before nodding his acceptance.

"Team 4 your mission will be to investigate and perform a background check on a woman by the name of Kin Kichida. The individual that requested this mission has requested that the report be as detailed as possible and given to them in 3 days. Will you accept the mission?" The Hokage says.

"Yes, Hokage-sama" Hayama says after conferring with his team.

This type of mission was perfect in Hayama's mind as he felt his team needed a break after dealing with Anko. He really regretted asking her for help, especially since in order to secure her help the woman demanded he treat her to Dango for a month. Hayama managed to whittle that down to 3 dinners, but if last night was an example of what he could expect then he was going to be broke after the second dinner and in-debt up to his eyeballs after the third unless he could arrange to get his team sent on a couple of B-rank missions.

The mission would also serve to expose them to another aspect of being a ninja. It wasn't all fights and rescuing people. There was a mental component to being a ninja that was often over looked or under valued. Hayama wanted his team to get that message before it was too late.

"Alright, you have your mission. You are dismissed" The Hokage says.

Hayama and the team bowed in respect to the old leader before filing out of the room. The team walked back to the training grounds where they then began to discuss the mission.

"Alright team, this mission will be different than any we have done before. This one will require you to use your minds, stealth, and tracking ability. I realize I haven't taught you that much about stealth or tracking yet, but you should be able to do your part in this mission" Hayama tells them.

"How do we check someone's background sensei?" Fuki asked.

"Part of it is looking up their recorded information. Financial records, Commercial records, Medical records, School records, and see if they have a Criminal record" Hayama informs them.

"How do you find all that?" Tomaru asked.

"Most of the records are kept on file in the Hokage mansion. For those that aren't I will have to go around and talk to different people that have access to that information. It's not that hard to do really and I will show each of you what I'm talking about later, but I have something different for you three to do" Hayama explains.

The genin were eager to find out what they were going to do. Tomaru and Naruto were just glad they didn't have to look up some boring files. That really sounded lame and suspiciously like school work. Fuki also shared their thoughts, but she also wondered if they had a file on her and what it contained.

"What will we be doing sensei?" Naruto asked.

"You three are going to follow the client without letting her see you" Hayama announces.

"Ohh …" the 3 genin say collectively.

"Also if you find her away from her home I want two of you to sneak away and break in with one acting as a lookout. You will need to wear your communication devises and stay in contact with each other at all times. I want at least one of you following the target closely at all times. I doubt this will take longer than a few days to complete, but remember to switch off and one of you get some rest after you have been able to successfully break into the apartment and search it for anything of interest. I will find you after I have completed my half of the mission, understood?" Hayama explains.

"Hai, sensei" they all say.

"Then take the rest of the day off. We'll start bright and early tomorrow morning. Here is the targets information and photo i.d.. Any questions?" Hayama asks.

"What if we have to take a bathroom break?" Tomaru asks.

"Then go to the bathroom, but let your teammates know before you do so" Hayama responds.

"Anything else?" He asks.

This time all three shook their heads.

"Alright then you are dismissed, but remember to set up a meeting point so the three of you can set up your surveillance properly. If anything happens contact me on my radio by tuning to this frequency" Hayama says.

He hands them a slip of paper and then let's them go home. He wasn't too worried. The worst that could happen is the target would find out about the investigation, but it was pretty standard stuff so it wouldn't be a big deal unless something was really going on.

**Next Day**

Team 4 was hiding outside of the woman's apartment. It was still morning and they hadn't detected any signs of movement, which must have meant the target was still asleep. The genin took positions around the property and waited for their target. They didn't have to wait long. At 7:15 she walked out of her apartment, locked the door, and headed to work.

That morning the team decided that Tomaru would be the one to follow her initially while Naruto and Fuki broke into her apartment and looked around. They were still unsure as to what they were supposed to be looking for exactly.

When the woman and Tomaru were gone Naruto snuck up to her apartment and used his lock picking set to easily gain entrance. Since the woman had no shinobi background or any family living with her it was easy for him to gain entrance with Fuki quickly following as they closed the door behind them.

They snooped around for an hour looking through photos, bills, Fuki checked the bed and bathrooms, Naruto had the pleasure of going through the garbage. The apartment wasn't that big really, and didn't have many hiding places or at least none that they saw. Naruto had remembered to bring a camera and snapped a few pictures of each of the rooms. They left quietly and linked back up with Tomaru outside of the woman's work place.

They spent the rest of the day following her on her lunch break and then back to her house. After the lights turned out at around 10:30 in her apartment the genin began rotating shifts like Hayama suggested with Naruto and Fuki letting Tomaru go first as he seemed ready to drop anyway. When he came back in 3 hours Fuki then got some rest, and then Naruto.

Naruto arrived back on the scene just as the woman left her apartment and headed to work at exactly 7:15. They followed again with the same thing happening as she went on a 30 minute lunch break around noon, finished work a little after 6 o'clock, and lights out at 10:30. That was when Hayama appeared and rejoined the team.

Hayama looked at his genin and saw that each one looked a little tired and frustrated, which is exactly how he expected to find them which is why he wasn't going to prolong this mission over the period of several weeks like it would normally take. He really just wanted them to experience some of the more mundane and less talked about aspects of being a ninja.

Besides, this mission was perfect for a young genin team to get their feet wet. The woman was a model employ and had been for over a decade. The position she was being promoted to was more upper-middle management and pretty much just giving her a fancier title for doing the same work with a little more responsibility, a little less oversight, and a little more money in her paycheck. There really was nothing that stood out about this woman or the job she did. It was just a routine check to kick the tires so to speak and more of a precaution than anything.

When he asked for a report he got pretty much what he expected, nothing. Everything had checked out on his end as well with all the checks coming up as normal. He was about to send his team home and call the mission complete when the door to the apartment opened.

Instead of a late thirties, brown haired, average height, average weight, woman that wore glasses and conservative clothing stepped out a kunoichi in typical dark ninja attire. The unknown kunoichi had the same hair color as their target and height, but Hayama noted her build was slimmer and more agile.

"Who is that?" Tomaru asked confused.

"I don't know, get ready to follow. Fuki I need you to check the apartment in case our target is still inside and needs help. Be careful there might be hidden traps that weren't there earlier, and come find us if you don't find anything" Hayama ordered.

Not even a second passed between him saying that and the kunoichi taking off using the rooftops for visibility on a clear night and speed. Hayama and the boys quickly matched her, but it even surprised Hayama how fast the woman was moving as she was slowly getting further ahead of them.

It wasn't long until she stopped and dropped down on the ground and then ran again for one of the Easter sections of the Forest surrounding Konoha. Team 4 still managed to keep the woman in range and followed at a safe distance stopping when she did at an old indistinguishable tree.

From there it was a waiting game. Fuki even had time to catch up informing them that the apartment was clear and that she found the woman's clothes discarded in her bathroom, but no sign of any struggle. It was obvious this woman was a spy and had been for some time. The only suspicious thing about her was her lack of any real connections to any of her co-workers or people in the community. Everyone Hayama had talked to described her in the same way, as a normal unremarkable hard working woman with little or no personal life.

At 3:15 a.m. another man entered the clearing. Hayama clearly made out the hitai-ate (forehead protector) of a Suna shinobi.

'What is a Suna-nin doing here?'

'I'll have to inform Hokage-sama of this right away' Were a few of Hayama's thoughts.

The genin watched with anticipation already tense and expecting a fight.

"Calm down" Hayama told them quietly.

"But sensei …" Tomaru started only for Hayama to cover his mouth.

He shook his head at the boy and then motioned all of them to be silent.

The meeting between the woman and the ninja was fairly simple and neither seemed on high alert as if they had done this already many times. The woman produced a folder of document she had hidden on her body and handed it to the man. The Suna shinobi then took an exaggerated whiff of the folder and grinned before saying something to the kunoichi. They bantered back and forth for a bit and then both went their separate ways.

Hayama left the genin to follow the woman back to the apartment. He was sure she wouldn't make any further moves, which proved correct. Once the woman was back in her apartment the genin tense from the unexpected action quickly found themselves exhausted but held out until Hayama arrived just before dawn.

"Team our mission is over. Go home and get some rest and then report to the Hokage Tower at 2:00 to be debriefed and hand in your mission report" Hayama tells them.

"But sensei! She's a spy! Why aren't we …" Before Tomaru could go further Hayama muffled him once more.

"Tomaru this is no longer any of your concern. I know what you saw, but it's being handled by the Hokage now. You all did a good job on this mission, but now you have to let it go and move on. We still have more training to do before our next mission" Hayama says sternly.

"Why?" Naruto asked.

He like Tomaru also wanted to continue on this mission. That woman had seemed so boring and dull, and then bam she was all super spy moving in and out of the village and only they had noticed! He wanted to expose her and find out who she was working for just like Tomaru. Fuki also felt the same as the boys knowing how big a breech this could be to village security.

"Look … your all ninja now. Sometimes you get to be the hero's and then other times you have to let someone else save the day or help them do so. Our mission was only to follow this woman and do a simple investigation. We have done our job and possibly uncovered a dangerous element within the village. None of you are equipped to handle a mission this sensitive right now, but your time will come.

For now you have to rest on that you did your job and helped your village. I hope I don't have to tell any of you that this mission is secret and that you cannot tell anyone about it. If asked you will say it was a simple C-rank and that nothing happened. Am I understood" Hayama tells them.

"Hai, sensei" The trio responds.

None of them put much heart into it as they really wanted to continue the mission.

"Good, now get some rest and meet me at 2 o'clock. You are dismissed" Hayama says.

Team 4 breaks up each going home. When Tomaru got home he found his mother in the kitchen beginning to cook breakfast and asked if he would be joining them. He mumbled a quick no and headed to bed with his thoughts still on the mission and the mysterious woman. He never assumed anyone could get inside Konoha without someone knowing about it and this was definitely a big surprise to him. He couldn't understand why they didn't stop the woman or the foreign shinobi. He didn't understand any of it.

Naruto and Fuki went home to exactly the same thing they went home to everyday, an empty apartment. They also shared Tomaru's thoughts and wondered what would happen. All 3 found it hard to get to sleep, but eventually did and then woke up to give their report.

For the rest of the week things went back to normal for Team 4 as they were forced back into to training mode. Still each one would think of that mission and that woman occasionally, but eventually they forgot as Hayama introduced them to another new sensei. This time it was Hana Inuzuka, and she introduced the team to the finer details of tracking. Hana also was good enough to also introduce the team to medical ninjutsu, but only spent a few days on that as none of them seemed adapt at it. Hana did leave them with material they could go over on their own time individually if they were still interested.

Hayama then decided against doing another C-rank and instead had the team do a series of mind numbing D-ranks followed by another week of training, but this time there was no new sensei. Team 4 spent the time going over all they had learned and basic teamwork exercises and formations.

At the end of the fifth week Hayama saw a bird circle above the training fields and knew it was time. The Chūnin Exams were beginning.

* * *

**I want to thank everyone for reading this latest chapter of Speed Unmatched. This is a challenged issued by Narutoenthusiast. For anyone interested in the challenge or others he has check out u/1646974/Narutoenthusiast  
**


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer - I do not own Naruto or anything connected to Naruto.  
**

**Chapter 12 - Chūnin Selection Exam Pt.1 **

The Jōnin-sensei for the rookie teams stood together in the Hokage's office with the other Jōnin-sensei for the older more experienced teams. They could each feel the eyes of their fellow Jōnin looking them over and scrutinizing them.

It was no secret that the success of their teams had caught the eyes of their fellow shinobi and caused many questions to secretly be asked. Most of it was harmless gossip that did nothing but bolster the reputations of their squads. Still, there those that questioned their ability to lead their squads most noticeably Kurenai.

"You all know why you are here. Seven days from now, on the first of July we will begin the Chūnin selection exam. Now that we are going to start the Chūnin selection exam, those who are in charge of new genin step forward" The Hokage orders.

Asuma, Hayama, Kakashi, and Kurenai stepped forward.

"Hayama, Kakashi, Asuma, and Kurenai … are there any genin you wish to enter into the exam amongst the ones you teach.

You probably know this, but any genin who has completed more than eight missions is eligible to enter the exam through your recommendation. Normally those who have done twice that amount are more suited" Sarutobi tells them.

'They are too young. There's no point in asking' Thought Iruka standing behind the four sensei's.

"Let's start with Kakashi" The Hokage directs.

Kakashi stepped forward taking center stage.

"From the squad that I lead Team 7 … Uchiha Sasuke, Inuzuka Kiba, Haruno Sakura. I recommend these three to the Chūnin Seclection Exam under my name Hatake Kakashi" Kakashi says.

Iruka was shocked by this. Hayama stepped forward as Kakashi stepped back.

"From the squad that I lead Team 4 … Uzumaki Naruto, Minakura Tomaru, and Fuki. I recommend these three to the Chūnin Selection Exam under my name Shirakumo Hayama" Hayama says.

Hayama stepped back as Asuma stepped forward.

"From the squad that I lead Team 10 … Akimichi Chōji, Nara Shikamaru, Yamanaka Ino. I recommend these three to the Chūnin Selection Exam under my name.

The room suddenly focused on the fourth and last sensei. Kurenai admittedly had forgotten about the Chūnin Exams. Her team wasn't ready and probably wouldn't be for another year.

It wasn't that her team didn't get along or didn't show the talent necessary to be considered for a promotion, but Yakumo's condition had improved greatly after Jiraiya helped her deal with the Ido. The demon was destroyed and Yakumo didn't have to deal with it anymore. She was even on better terms with her remaining clan members and taking the necessary steps to become the next clan head while learning as much of the clans skills and jutsu as she could.

Still the girl was a ways away from being fully recovered from the nightmare. Physically her body still wasn't able to keep up with her team mates and estimates were that it may take a few years before she did. Then there was Hinata, she really worried about her getting hurt in the exams. The most worrisome situation being if she ever had to go against her cousin which was highly possible.

Shino was the rock of the team and Kurenai knew of all of the genin including the ones from the other teams Shino was perhaps one of the few ready the duties of a Chūnin. Still he needed a team to take the Exam and she knew if Yakumo was in top form they needed more time. Each of them even Shino would only benefit from another year.

Still as she looked over at the other sensei's she couldn't stop herself.

"From the squad that I lead Team 8 … Hyūga Hinata, Kurama Yakumo, and Aburame Shino. I recommend these three to the Chūnin Selection Exam under my name Yūhi Kurenai" She says.

The Hokage smiled at the four Jōnin glad that things were going smoothly. If he hadn't been so pleased with himself he would have instantly been on alert as mumbling started behind the nominations

"All four gave recommendations"

"It's been a couple of years since rookies have appeared in the Chūnin Exams"

"Please wait!" Iruka shouted.

"What is it Iruka?" The Hokage asks.

The old man hid the frown as he knew what the man was about to do.

"Please let me speak, Hokage-sama" The academy teacher says.

Iruka never waited for the signal to go ahead as he plowed on.

"Excuse me for interfering, but the twelve that had their names called were students of mine at the academy. Everyone of them is talented, but it's too early! They need more experience before they enter the exam" He argues.

Kurenai and Hayama hid the fact they agreed with the man stopping themselves from nodded. For Kurenai it just made her regret the nomination. It was Kakashi that stepped forward to challenge the academy teacher.

"I became a Chūnin when I was six years younger than them" Kakashi counters.

"They are different from you! Are you trying to ruin them!" Iruka shouted back.

"My group always complain during important missions, putting them into a dangerous situation maybe interesting. Ruining them might also be interesting" Kakashi coolly responds.

"What did you say …" Iruka says threateningly.

"That was a joke, Iruka-sensei. I understand what you are saying. You must be upset as well, but …" Kakashi says stopping the man in his tracks.

"Kakashi, stop" Kurenai says trying to diffuse the situation.

"Don't interfere! They are no longer your students. They are our subordinates now" Kakashi tells the man.

Everyone in the room including the other three sensei's just watched it play out.

"What a troublesome pair" muttered Asuma.

"But the Chūnin Exams are also know as the …" Iruka starts to respond.

The Hokage cuts him off deciding he had enough of this little drama.

"Iruka, I understand your argument, but what's done is done. I approve of the recommendations. I think you will be surprised by what some of your former students can truly do" The Hokage says.

"But … but …" Iruka starts.

"Enough! We need to move on to the non-rookie genin team nominations. I will not question these nominations and trust that the sensei's know what they are doing" The Hokage finishes.

Iruka looked unsurely at his leader before turning an angry eye on the four rookie sensei's. He left after glaring at Kakashi in particular.

"That's going to be trouble later on" Hayama says.

"Maa, maa … he'll cool off" Kakashi says.

"I don't know … maybe he had a point" Kurenai says softly.

"Not backing out are you?" Asuma asks.

"No, I have confidence in my team" Kurenai says.

She quickly left after saying that causing the four males to watch her as she did.

"Hhmph, that went well" Asuma says.

The three men nod and stay to hear the other nominations. Of course Iruka wasn't the only one to question the decision, but that would come once the meeting was finished. The old Hokage continues to smoke his pipe as he steeples his fingers together while in thought. He was doing the right thing.

**Next Day**

Naruto, Fuki, and Tomaru had gathered at Shushuya as Hayama ordered a plate of roasted yakitori, a bottle of sake for him, and water for the kids. After placing the order he sat in the both opposite Naruto and Tomaru sitting beside Fuki as they waited.

"Why did you want us to meet you here sensei?" Fuki asked.

Hayama sighed and figured it was best to just get it out.

"I don't know if you've heard, but the Chūnin Selection Exam is taking place this year in Konoha. It begins in six days and I have nominated the three of you to take part in it. It's completely voluntary so if you feel your ready to take them …"

He pulls out three pieces of paper and hands one to each genin.

"… then sign this and bring it to room 301 of the Academy building in six days. It's best if you get there early" He tells them.

The three genin nod and focus on the slips until the food comes eating quickly before departing. Naruto was walking to a nearby training ground when he stopped by an ANBU.

"The Hokage requests your presence" The ANBU says.

Naruto allowed the ANBU to shunshine them to the Hokage's office. As soon as they appeared the Hokage greeted them. He came around his desk and gave Naruto a hug … it was really awkward for Naruto.

"How are you my boy?" The Hokage asks.

He releases Naruto from the hug giving him a big smile and a pat on the head.

"It's been so long since I've seen you. Please have a seat and let's talk" The Hokage says.

Naruto blankly sits in the chair facing the Hokage.

"Umm … Hokage-sama, did I do something wrong?" Naruto asks.

"What on earth gave you the impression you did something wrong? I just called you here to get a look at you and see how you were doing. And please none of that Hokage-sama nonsense when we are alone like this. Call me jiji like you used to when you were a kid" The old man says.

"Umm … wouldn't that be inappropriate?" Naruto asks confused.

"Nonsense, why I remember when you first called me jiji. It was at the orphanage and I was reading you your favorite book, do you remember? The tale of the utterly gutsy shinobi. I lost count of the times you had me read that book over and over to you" The Hokage reminisces.

Naruto remembered that book. It wasn't his favorite and he never asked the Hokage to read it to him. He would come by sit him on his lap and just read that book. Naruto had actually asked him if he had any other books he could read to him, but for some reason the man had seemed insistent on reading that particular book. He hadn't seen or read that book since his first year at the academy.

"Kind of … it was a good back. I haven't read it in a long time though" Naruto answers.

"Oh … of course I'm sure you have a lot of other interests now. How do you like your team?" The old man asks.

"Ahh … they're great. Sensei is a great teacher and my team mates are both nice to me. We all get along, well" Naruto responds.

"That's good to hear. I really put a lot into selecting your team so I'm glad it all worked out. How have the missions been … nothing to hard yet I hope" The Hokage says.

"No, no … umm … it's been okay" Naruto answers.

Thankfully for Naruto they were interrupted as someone came barging in through the door.

"You old geezer, fight me!" shouted a little boy.

The kid was wearing a yellow shirt with a red Konoha symbol on it, grey shorts, a long blue scarf, a stupid looking helmet with a hole on the top with a red circle on the left side and an orange frowning face on the right side. He had spiky dark brown hair with a portion of it sticking through the top of the helmet, black eyes, a chipped tooth, and a little over four feet in height.

"The title of Godaime Hokage belongs to me, Konohamaru!" The kid shouted as he charged shuriken in hand.

He only got two steps further before he tripped and fell flat on his face. His helmet didn't protect him from that and everyone just watched as the kid rolled around and whined on the floor. That's when another man raced in wearing sunglasses and a black bandana connected to his forehead protector. Naruto watched as the kid slowly got up and the obvious embarrassment the Hokage was displaying was very visible.

"Young master, are you okay?!" Called at the bandana wearing man.

"Is this a trop" The kid calls out.

"There are no traps" The bandana man says.

Naruto would have laughed if it was funny, but it was really just sad. He already knew who this kid was and while Naruto was glad for the distraction he really wanted to leave. Unfortunately the kid looking for an excuse turned in his direction as did the bandana man.

'That kid is … the Kyūbi brat. It's that punk I really hate" Ebisu thought maliciously.

Of course Naruto knew who this man was as well. He was his 2nd year teacher at the academy. Even if he ignored him like the rest Naruto could every once in a while feel hate filled glares come from his direction when he thought he wasn't looking. Naruto was happy when he was promoted half-way through his second year and he didn't have to deal with him after that. Needless to say he was one of the people Naruto disliked most, but the brat was taking his attention as he walked up into his face pointing at him.

"I got it; you did something, didn't you!" The kid accused.

Naruto just looked at the Hokage for help, but saw none was coming. So he stood up and bowed to the old man.

"Hokeage-sama, it seems this will have to wait for another day. If you will excuse me I have some training to do before the Exams start" Naruto says politely.

"I understand, we'll talk some other time. Good luck on the Exams my boy" The Hokage responds.

"Thank you, Hokage-sama" Naruto says before walking out.

All the while the boy kept yelling at him only to be ignored, which obviously he didn't like.

"Hey! Are you listening to me! Hey! I'm talking to you! You can't ignore me I'm the Sandiame Hokage's Grandson!" He shouted.

Naruto just continued on out the door and Konohamaru went to follow, but Ebisu blocked his way.

"Honorable grandson you cannot get involved with guys like that. You are the grandson of the great Sandiame Hokage. You have his reputation and family name to uphold. Nothing good will come out of dealing with someone like that. I, the elite teacher Ebisu, am never wrong about these things.

You wish to become the Godiame Hokage, right?

If I teach you ninja techniques, it will be easy to gain the title Hokage. Yes, the quickest path to becoming Hokage is to learn from me. Do you understand, young master?" The fool says.

Of course half way through he had turned away from the door and the boy and said boy was gone now.

"What?! Where did he go?!" The man freaked out.

"Seems he went to find Naruto" The Hokage tells him.

"What!? This is an emergency situation!" Ebisu shouted before running out the room.

'What an obnoxious man. Why did I have him become Konohamru's babysitter/tutor …" the old man thought.

Meanwhile Naruto was walking through the village towards the training grounds. He wanted to get in some training before calling it a day. But he noticed he was being followed. He turned and looked at the kid ducked down in the middle of the road with a sheet draped over him. Naruto would give him credit that at least it matched the road, but not only were his feet still visible but he saw him throw the sheet over himself.

"Hey … Sarutobi-san … Konohamaru-san I can see you okay. Come on and tell me what you want?" Naruto asks.

The kid reluctantly abandoned his disguise before turning angry beady eyes on the blonde before getting in his space.

"Apologize!" The kid shouted.

"For …"

"You tripped me and messed up my chance to become the Godaime Hokage!" The kid shouted.

"*Haha* *Haha* You *haha* thought that *haha* if you barged in the Hokage's office and what … knocked him out some how that you *haha* would become the Hokage?" Naruto asks between laughs.

"Hey stop laughing at me!" Konohamaru yells.

He then goes to attack the laughing blond only to find he missed and then tripped again falling on his face. Naruto just watched as the kid picked himself up again while holding his nose.

"Look kid I don't have time to deal with you. You can't become Hokage even if you did beat up your grandfather" Naruto tells him.

"What?" Konohamaru asks confused.

"Do you even know how or why your grandfather became the Hokage in the first place?" Naruto asks.

"Umm … yeah …" Konohamaru answers.

"Then you know all your doing is making a spectacle out of yourself and annoying your grandfather" Naruto tells him.

"What … no I'm not!" Konohamaru shouts.

"Look kid … you aren't even a genin. To become the Hokage without being directly named his successor with credible and influential witnesses their to verify it you would need the backing of a majority of the high-ranking ninja, the clan heads, the senior council, and the Daimyō before you could be made Hokage. How many of those people do you think would want an academy student to be their Hokage?" Naruto asks.

"…"

"There is no short cut to becoming Hokage. To lead a village as powerful as Konoha you need a lot of skill, ability, knowledge, experience, and influence or popularity to become the Hokage. You can't just wake up one day and decide because of who your grandfather is that you are ready to become Hokage and expect everyone to just go along with it" Naruto lectures.

Konohamaru just looks down at the ground kicking at the dirt.

"Why do you even want to be Hokage in the first place?" Naruto asks.

"I … Grandpa gave me the name Konohamaru. He it took it from the name of the village …"

'That much is obvious. The old man must really love the village, but that seems a little too much. I wonder if all the Hokage's were like that' Naruto thought.

"… but even though it's a name that everyone should have heard many times, no one calls me by that name. Whenever anyone sees me or calls me they only see my grandfather the Sandiame Hokage. No one recognizes me as an individual. I hate that.

So … so I want the title of Hokage right now!" The boy explains.

"So that's it … well good luck with that, Konohamaru" Naruto says.

The boy looks up stunned at the older boy. That was when they were interrupted.

"I found you!" Shouted Ebisu from atop a building.

He jumped down onto the street. The cold look in his eyes just reminded Naruto of why he didn't want to get involved.

"Seems your babysitter is here. See you around, Konohamaru-san" Naruto says before vanishing.

The kid looked around searching for the older boy, but Ebisu stopped him.

"Come young master. There is much to learn and we already wasted enough time on that brat" Ebisu says.

He didn't wait for a response and grabbed the young Sarutobi dragging him off. The kid kept looking for the blonde teen though. He wanted to know more about him.

**Six Days Later**

Naruto, Fuki, and Tomaru walked into the academy building together. Hayama hadn't told them when to be there so they were at the academy before the sun rose. Maybe they were a little too eager, especially Tomaru that demanded they arrive early and be the first ones there.

They had spent the last six days training and going over strategies with and without their sensei. Tomaru wanted to be loud and flashy showing the other teams that they were the best. This was in part due to the talk around town. Most people were saying there were only three rookie teams and team 4 was hardly mentioned. All the focus was on the three teams with the clan heirs and Tomaru didn't like it.

Fuki and Naruto wanted a stealth approach. They were both fine with being counted out by the village and fellow genin. It would only make things easier for them in the long run if everyone was gunning for the other teams. They didn't want to be first, they wanted to blend in and hide amongst the crowd.

So they compromised they arrived early wearing dark colored clothing. Fuki wore a dark green shirt with black stripes and black pants with black sandals and a dark green scarf. Tomaru wore a dark blue t-shirt with a black undershirt, dark blue pants, and blue sandals.

Naruto wore rust colored t-shirt with a black undershirt. The shirt held the Uzumaki clan symbol embossed on the back in a pumpkin orange color. He also wore rust colored pants with multiple pockets and black sandals. He also wore a half face ski mask that had orange flames on it and simple black bandana to cover his hair.

When the academy doors opened a little after 6:30 a.m. they were among the first groups through. As they walked up the steps to the second floor it was Tomaru whom first noticed the genjutsu and alerted his teammates. The two chūnin disguised as older genin didn't hassle them seeing as it was still early and they were able to see through the trick. They just watched as the team passed by along with another team from Sunagakure and headed up the stairs.

"Who were those guys?" Asked the disguised Izumo.

"I think that was Hayama's team and the Kazekage's children" Kotetsu responds.

"That red head was scary wasn't he?" Izumo says.

"Ehh … I'm looking forward to Kakashi and Gai's team personally. The other rookies don't interest me much" Kotetsu replies.

Izumo nodded his head and they got back to their jobs. Meanwhile, as Naruto was walking up the stairs behind the Suna team he kept feeling like someone wanted to kill him. He looked over and noticed the Tomaru and Fuki were slightly shaking as they felt it too. Placing a hand on their shoulders they slowed down a bit and let the sand team get further ahead.

"What was that?" Tomaru asked when he thought they were out of hearing range.

Fuki shrug as she didn't know, but Naruto answered.

"One of them was producing enough blood lust for us to feel it, but it wasn't directed at us I don't think" Naruto says.

"Could you tell which one it was?" Fuki asked.

Naruto shook his head.

"We should be careful. It seems the Exams will be as dangerous as we heard they would be" Naruto says.

Fuki and Tomaru nodded neither eager to face off with the Sand team. They waited a little more allowing a few more teams to pass ahead of them before walking up the stairs towards the door for room 301.

"Hayama-sensei!" shouted Tomaru.

"What are you doing here?" Naruto asks.

"You didn't think I would miss seeing my team off, did you?" Hayama responds.

Both boys blushed a little as they indeed didn't think they would see their sensei for awhile.

"How are you feeling? Are you ready for the Exams?" Hayama asks them.

"Hai, sensei" all three respond.

"Good. I won't see you guys again until after you pass the second portion of the Exam so good luck in there and remember to stick together. These exams are full of danger and tricks so pay close attention to the Examiners rules and you should be fine" Hayama tells them.

"We will sensei"

"Then I'll see you guys soon" Hayama says before leaving.

Team 4 gathers their selves and walk into the room. With so few teams they were able to pick out a nice spot away from the others and wait for the Exam to start.

**A few hours later**

The room was overflowing with teams. It seemed the start of the exams was close. Two of the other rookie teams had already arrived those being teams 8 and 10. The other genin were also keeping to themselves although Naruto had waved to Chōji, but the Nara quickly led him and the Yamanaka heiress away. Chōji just gave him an apologetic look which Naruto waved off knowing it wasn't his fault.

It wasn't until Team 7 arrived that things became slightly interesting. Team 4 watched from afar as the three prominent rookie teams gathered together and then a silver haired older teen approached them. They listened as he spoke to them.

"Hey, you guys. You should quiet down a little. So you're the twelve rookies that just graduated from the academy, correct?" The silver haired teen says as he looks them over.

"Hmm … seems three of you are missing. I guess they were smart enough to avoid taking the exams this year" He adds casually.

Team 4 saw several teams searching for them, but they seemed to quickly refocus on the three rookie teams making all the nose and the silver haired team. They ignored the comment thrown at them. Everyone would know their names soon enough.

"The nine of you are fooling around with those cute faces … geez, this isn't a field trip" The silver hair teen admonished them.

Looking at the three teams you could easily see signs of agitation, but the guy didn't seem to care.

"Who are you tell us that?!" exploded Yamanaka Ino.

"I am Yakushi Kabuto. Look around you …" He tells them.

They looked around to see everyone giving them serious looks, putting them slightly on edge. None topped by the looks the group behind them were giving them.

"That ones behind you are from the Hidden Village of Rain. They have short tempers. Everyone is tense since it's right before the Exam. I warned you so that you won't get picked on" He tells them.

The group of rookies all look afraid of the older stronger looking teams. All the teams including the older Leaf teams were looking at them like they could kill them all in a second.

"I guess it can't be helped though, since you are all just rookies who don't know anything. It reminds me of the old me" Kabuto says.

"Kabuto-san, was it?" Sakura says turning to the older teen.

"Yeah" He responds.

"Is this your second time then?" The pink haired rookie asks.

"No. My seventh time" He answers.

Everyone looked at him a little strangely with that announcement, but looking at the crowd he probably wasn't the only here who had been through it that many times. Some of the teams looked to be in the early to mid twenties. Of course some of the nine rookies in front of him ignored that fact.

"This exam only takes place twice every year, and its my fourth year" He explains.

"That means you know a lot about this exam, right?" Sakura says.

"Yeah" Kabuto confirms.

"But he hasn't passed it" Shikamaru cuts in.

"Yeah, that's true" Kabuto says laughing it off.

"Is the Chūnin Exam that difficult? This is just getting even more troublesome" Shikamaru says.

"Yeah, it is. Maybe I should give my cute underclassmen some information, then …"

The silver haired teen then reaches into a pouch at his waist. He pulls out a deck of reddish-orange cards with black trim, and a black and white circle with a symbol drawn in black in the middle of it.

"with these recognition cards" Kabuto says.

"Recognition cards?" Sakura questions.

"In simple terms, it's a card that has information burned into it using my chakra. I've collected information on these exams for the past for years" He explains as he places the deck on the floor.

"There's about 200 cards total" He then takes one from the deck and flips it over on the ground.

"It looks white, but … to get the information from this card …"

He places his index finger directly in the middle of the blank looking card and it starts to spin slowly on the ground. The rookies gather around closely amazed, blocking Team 4's view.

"What are you doing?" Sakura asks.

"It's made so that you can't view it without my chakra. Like this" He says.

A poof of smoke erupts and then the rookies can all see an image and writing has surfaced on the card.

"Wow, what information is this?" Sakura asks.

"The exams total number of examinees and the countries participating. It also has the number of participants from each hidden village" He explains.

The info on the card reads: 30 Sunagakure participants, 21 Amegakure participants, 15 Kusagakure, 12 Takigakure, 75 Konohagakure participants, and 3 Sound participants.

"Let me ask you, why do you think we do the Chūnin Exam together?" He asked them.

No one seemed prepared to answer so he continued.

"First, it's to deep the friendly relationships with the other countries. Next, it's to heighten the level of the ninja. That is what they say" Kabuto explains.

"That is what they say?" Sasuke questions.

"Yes, the real purpose is to confirm the level of the ninja in each adjacent country to try and balance out the power" Kabuto tells them.

"And why do they go through such a troublesome task?" Shikamaru asks.

"If they didn't do that, the weak countries will be invaded and dominated by the strong ones. So they need to check and restrain each others powers. It's just my guess, though" Kabuto tells them.

"Are there any cards that have detailed personal information?" Sasuke asks him.

"Yes. Is there someone that interests you?" Kabuto asks.

"Yes" Sasuke answers.

Kabuto picks up his cards and starts straightening them as he answers.

"The information of this exam's examinees are not perfect, but I've burned and saved them. They include information on the twelve rookies as well. Tell me whatever you know about the people you know that interests you. I'll look it up for you" Kabuto says.

This comment slightly interested Naruto. Maybe he was another Uchiha fan boy and this was his moment of glory, but he seemed focused on the Uchiha Naruto thought as he continued listening.

"Gaara from the Hidden Village of Sand and Rock Lee from Konoha" Sasuke says.

"Oh, you know their names. Then it wont take much time" Kabuto responds.

He arranges the deck a bit and then takes two cards from it in a flashy manner.

"Here we go" Kabuto says holding the two cards.

"Show me" the Uchiha commands.

Kabuto places one card on the floor and places his index finger on it causing it to erupt in smoke before displaying a picture of Rock Lee and then his stats and as sundry information.

"First, Rock Lee. He's one year older than you. Mission experience 20 D-rank ones and 11 C-rank ones. The squad leader is Guy. His hand-to-hand combat skills have increased dramatically this year, but his other skills are terrible.

He got everyone's attention last year as a skilled rookie genin, but he didn't take the Chūnin Exam. This is his first time taking it, like you. His team is composed of Tenten and Hyūga Neji.

Next, let's see Gaara of the Desert" Kabuto says.

He places the other card he plucked on top of the one holding Lee's information and uses his chakra to make the information visible.

"Mission experience 8 C-rank ones and … this is amazing. He did a B-rank mission as a genin. He's a foreign ninja and this it's his first time taking the exam, so I don't have any more information on him. But … it seems that he has returned from all of his missions unharmed" Kabuto tells them.

"He did a B-rank mission as a genin, and was unharmed?" Shikamaru says.

They all watched as he placed a new card down and new information popped up.

"Konoha, Sand, Rain, Grass, Waterfall, and Sound. This year, many talented genin from these hidden villages have come here to take the exam.

The Hidden Village of Sound is a village of a small country that was just made recently, so I don't have much information on them" Kabuto says.

He then places the card back in the deck.

"Either way all of them are powerful hidden villages" Kabuto tells them.

The looks on the rookies faces showed Kabuto had unnerved some of them.

"I'm starting to loose confidence …"Hinata says barely above a whisper.

"It's too late to say that!" Ino rebuffs her.

"In other words, the examinees here are all …" Sakura starts ignoring the comment.

"Right … It's not only Lee or Gaara. All the people here are top elites chosen from each country. This isn't that easy" Kabuto says.

The atmosphere and the room became tense and heavy putting the rookies even more on edge. That's when three ninja's from Oto attacked Kabuto breaking his glasses and causing him to vomit despite seemingly dodging the attack.

This served to panic the rookies even more as they helped Kabuto, but Naruto and team 4 along with other genin teams just stood and analyzed what they saw of the attack. It was definitely not an ordinary attack. Before anything else could happen an explosion of smoke and the proctor arrived.

"Quiet down! You punks!" A deep male voice shouted gaining everyone's attention.

When the smoke cleared a man with a deeply scarred face stood in front of a group of Chūnin and addressed the genin.

"I am the examiner of the 1st test of the Chūnin Selection Exam, Morino Ibiki" He says.

"You three, from the Hidden Sound Village don't think you can do anything you want before the exam starts. Do you want us to fail you already?!" He questions them.

"I'm sorry. I was excited, since this is my first exam" lied the mummified looking sound ninja.

"*Tsch* … this is a good chance to say this. You are not allowed to fight each other during the exam unless given permission by the examiners. Even if the permission is given, you are not allowed to kill each other. Pigs who go against me will fail immediately. Understood?" He barks out.

"This exam seems so soft and easy" Someone mouths off.

"We will now begin the 1st Exam of the Chūnin Selection Exam. Turn in your applications then take one of these number tags, and sit where the number tells you to. Then we will pass out the papers for the written exam" Ibiki tells them.

Naruto ended up sitting next to Hinata and another older Leaf genin. After everyone was seated Ibiki began explaining the rules of the Exam.

"This first exam has a few important rules. I will not accept any questions, so listen carefully" Ibiki says.

Naruto, Fuki, and Tomaru perk up from their positions and listen intently to what was about to be said remembering Hayama's parting advice.

"First rule is you are all given ten points at the start. The written exam consists of ten questions, and each one is worth one point. This test is a deduction based test. If you get one problem wrong, you will get one point deducted. If you get three problems wrong, your score will be reduced to seven.

Second rule, the pass-fail decision will be based on your team's total points" Ibiki tells them.

This immediately caused a commotion in the room as more than a few teams were aware of the limitations of their teammates. Team 4 didn't really have a problem with this. Tomaru acted like a hyperactive idiot, but he was smart enough that he should get at least five questions correct. The same could be said for Fuki and Naruto as well.

"Wait! Your teams total points, what?!" Shouted out Sakura.

Naruto shook his head, 'How could she forget one of the first things he said, which were no questions?'

"Shut up! There is a reason for this. Just shut up and listen" He shouted at her.

Sakura wisely shut up.

"Now on to the next rule. If an examiner determines that you cheated or something similar during the test … each action will cause you to loose two points" He says catching everyone's attention.

"In other words, there will be people who will be forced to leave this place without their tests being graded. Those who cheat without thinking carefully will only hurt themselves.

We will 'check' you at any time. You are all trying to become Chūnin's. If you are ninja, act like a first-rate one" Ibiki says before pausing.

"Also, if anyone in a team gets a zero, everyone on that team will fail. The last problem will be given 45 minutes after the exam begins. You have one hour for the Exam"

Ibiki waited until the second hand reached the twelve on the clock at the back of the room.

"Begin!" He shouts.

Naruto looked at the first problem. It was a cipher.

The second one read, 'The parabola, B, represents a shuriken's maximum throwing distance of the enemy ninja, A, from a height of seven meters. Figure out the trait of the enemy ninja that can be observed from the ellipse formed by the shuriken and figure out the maximum throwing distance on flat ground. Explain your reasoning.'

'Maybe we do have a problem' Naruto thought.

He thought back on the rules and realized what the test was about. He hoped his teammates did as well, but that still left the problem of how to cheat without getting caught and who to cheat off. Naruto was discreetly looking for those that seemed to know the answers. Hinata seemed to, but that was too easy plus it seemed like the examiners were extra focused on him. He couldn't just look over her shoulder and hope to not get caught.

As he was trying to decide a kunai flew right by his face. It landed on the desk of the guy behind him.

"You screwed up five times. You fail" Called Hagane Kotetsu.

"What?" The guy says shocked.

"Teammates of his, get out of here! Right now" Kotetsu commands.

Two guys the same age stood up and walked by the guy one without looking at him and the other glaring.

"Number 23, fail"

"Numbers 43 and 27 fail"

One guy was dragged out kicking and screaming. Another stood up to protest his expulsion.

"Hey, man, do you have any proof that I cheated five times?! Are you all really able to watch over this many people?" Questioned the suna genin.

His answer was being nailed in the neck by an elbow of a one of the examiners to the back wall before most could even blink it had happened so fast.

"Listen up. We are Chūnins that were chosen for this exam. Elites, so to say. We won't miss a single thing you do. My strength is the proof" The man says as he releases the guy letting him slump to the floor.

As teams started to drop more and more others found their way to cheat without being caught. For Naruto he used what he learned of meditation to gain his edge. Since he didn't have to move he could concentrate and focus on his mind's eye. It would give him awareness of up to ten feet around him.

Closing his eyes he visualized his mind and body and those around him. It took him fifteen minutes before he could access it and then looked at Hinata's paper. Memorizing it he quickly opened his eyes and jotted down what she wrote.

Tomaru lucked out. He happened to be sitting between Lee and Tenten when she was maneuvering her mirrors to allow him to cheat. He quickly copied the answers. Fuki was lucky enough to sit besides Sakura and caught the moment when she seemed to zone out. She tried to memorize as much as she could with a few quick looks and wrote down what she could not risking anything more.

After that it was the waiting game for Team 4 as more and more teams were expelled from the Exams some quietly and some not so quietly. It was an intense forty-five minutes for the genin.

After the time passed Ibiki got everyone's attention.

"Okay, I will now give the tenth problem!" He announced.

Everyone stopped what they were doing and listened up.

"Yes, but before that there is one final thing I have to say. There will be one special rule for this last question" He says.

Before he could go further the Suna genin that had asked to go to the bathroom a while back returned. Naruto was intrigued when Ibiki mentioned something about a puppet show. It was an obvious clue to the Suna genin's skill.

"I will no explain" Ibiki begins when the kid sits down.

"A hopeless rule. First, you are all going to choose if you wish to take this tent problem or not" Ibiki says.

"Choose? What happens if we don't take the tenth problem?" The blond Suna kunoichi interrupts.

"If you choose not to take it, your points will be reduced to zero. In other words, you will fail. Your two other teammates will fail along with you" Ibiki says causing an uproar that he ignores.

"And here is the other rule. If you choose to take it and get it wrong, You will … loose the privilege to take the Chūnin Exam forever" Ibiki tells them.

"What kind of dumb rule is that! There should be those who have taken the Chūnin Exam in the past!" shouted Inuzuka Kiba.

"*Haha* *Haha* *Haha*" Ibiki laughed further unsettling the genin.

"You were unlucky. This year, I am the rule. That is why I gave you the option of quitting. Those who are not confident can choose not to take it, and take the Exam next year or the year after that" He says while laughing again.

He let it sink in before going further.

"Let's begin. Those who will not be taking this tenth question, raise your hands. After we confirm your numbers, we will have you leave" Ibiki tells them.

It didn't take long before the first person quit and then a bunch of hands went up. After things settled down again Ibiki asked again.

"I will ask one more time. This is the choice that will impact your life. If you want to quit, now is the chance" He says.

A few more hands went up. In the end there were sixty-six participants left making up twenty-two teams and the 12 rookie genin were still in the game as none had quit. Ibiki turned to the other examiners before saying.

"Nice determination. For the first exam, everyone here … passes!" Ibiki announces.

Once more the genin were all stunned.

"Wait, what's the meaning of that?" Sakura questioned.

Naruto wanted to put his foot in her mouth. Serious who cares, we passed move on but she wasn't the only one with questions he noted.

"We pass already? What about the tenth question?" She added.

"There was no such thing to begin with" Ibiki says with a grin and a small laugh.

"Or you can call the two-choice question the tenth question" He further explains.

"What?" Temari calls out.

"So what were those previous nine problems? It was all a waste!" She says.

"No, it's not. The nine problems accomplished their purpose. The purpose to test each individual's information gathering skills" He explains.

"Information gathering skills?" She questions.

"First, this test's purpose lies in the first rule … your pass-fail decision is based on your three person teams. By giving that idea, we have given you an unprecedented amount of pressure to try and not be a nuisance to your team.

But these test problems cannot be solved by you genins. So, most of the people here have to the conclusion … 'I have to cheat to get points.' In other words the exam assumed that everyone was going to cheat.

So, we snuck in two Chūnin's who knew the answers to be the targets of cheating" Ibiki says.

Both let it be known who they were surprising the genin.

"But those who just cheated like a fool, failed of course. Why?" Ibiki continues as he removes his head protector and bandana.

"Information can have greater value than life at times, and in missions and battlefields … Information is contest with the lives of people!" Ibiki proclaims.

Most of the genin were shocked by the scars that covered his head and face signs of obvious torture.

"The information that an enemy gets after being noticed by a third person will not necessarily be accurate" He says as he reties his forehead protector.

"Remember this. Getting information incorrect can cause great damage to your teammates and village. So, we made you all gather information in the form of cheating. We kicked out those that were lacking in that field. That's what was going on" Ibiki finishes.

"Still I can't agree with that last question …" Says the blond Suna kunoichi.

Seriously it was getting annoying. What was there to agree with.

"But this tenth question was the main question of this first exam" He responds.

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked.

"Let me explain. The tenth question was a 'take or not take' choice. Needless to say, it was a painful two-choice question.

Those who did not take it failed with their teams. If you chose not take it, and could not answer it … your right to take the exam would have been taken away forever. It was a very sincere problem" He says seriously.

"How about this two-choice problem … let's assume that you have become a Chūnin. Your mission is to capture a secret document.

The number of enemy ninja, their abilities, and armaments are unknown and there maybe traps that enemy ninja have set up. Now will you accept this mission or not?" He asks them.

"Just because your life and the lives of your teammates maybe in danger, are you able to avoid dangerous missions?

The answer is … no. There are missions that carry heavy risks, but cannot be avoided. The ability to show your courage to your teammates when needed, and the ability to get through a bad situation … That is what we look for in a Chūnin, a squad leader.

Those who cannot bet their fate in a critical situation … Those who give up when given the chance because there is a next year, and let their minds sway over an uncertain future … Fools who only carry a light determination like that have no right to become a Chūnin. That is what I believe.

I am saying that you here who have chosen to take it gave the right answer for the difficult tenth question. You can deal with the difficulties you will face … you have broken through the entrance.

The First Exam of the Chūnin Selections has ended. I wish you luck" He tells them.

As soon as he finished a projectile shot through the window and a large black covering was implanted beside Ibiki with kunai staked in multiple places to the floor and ceiling.

"Everybody there's no time to be happy … I am the second examiner Mitarashi Anko"

The black covering revealed words saying, 'Second Examiner, Mitarashi Anko is here …'

A five foot almost five inches tall woman with purple hair styled in a short, spiky, fanned ponytail and light brown pupil-less eyes. She was wearing a tan overcoat with a mesh body suit that stretched down to her thighs, a dark-orange mini skirt with a blue belt and a sash like appendage that seemed to be under the mesh, a pendant that was hanging between her visibly bared breasts, a wrist watch, and shin guards connected to black open toed sandals.

Needless to say many of the guys and a few of the girls weren't paying much attention to what she was saying.

"Let's go to the next exam! Follow me!" She shouts.

Ibiki comes out from behind the banner.

"Grasp the atmosphere" Ibiki tells her.

"66? Ibiki, you let 22 teams pass?" She questioned.

"The first exam must have been too soft" She declares.

"It looks like there are a lot of excellent students this time" Ibiki defends.

"Oh well … I'm going to make more than half of the teams fail in the next exam" She says.

"I'm getting excited. I will explain the details tomorrow. We will go somewhere else, so ask your Jōnin teachers about the rally-point and time. That is all. Dismissed" She says.

The genin filed out of the room heading off to find their sensei's. Naruto and his team would actually train a little on their own before going home and resting up after finding Hayama. Tomorrow would bring a new challenge for the genin of team 4.

* * *

**Thank you for reading the 12th chapter of Speed Unmatched. I hope you enjoyed it.  
**


	13. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer - I do not own Naruto or anything connected to Naruto. This is a challenge fic.  
**

**Chapter 13 - Chūnin Selection Exam Pt.2 **

The teams that passed the 1st stage of the Chūnin Selection Exams were all gathered in front of training ground forty-four. Most of the genin including those from Konoha stared in a mixture of surprise, awe, and fear.

Surprise that Konoha had something like this and that they had never heard about it. Awe at it's sheer size. It had a radius of 10 kilometers or almost six and a quarter miles with a big fence surrounding it. Fear was due to the vibe the place was giving off and the sounds coming from it. It definitely sounded like multiple large and potentially dangerous beasts were contained by the slightly rusted fence with warning signs featured on the heavily locked gates.

"W-what is that place?" Tomaru says.

The fear in his voice thankfully went unnoticed as everyone was thinking pretty much along the same lines. Only his team mates really noticed, but let it go seeing as a little fear might be warranted. The increasing volume and diversity of the sounds coming from inside the fence made all the genin at least a little tense.

"This place is where the second exam will take place. Also known as the Forest of Death …" Anko announces getting their attention.

"The Forest of Death?" Tomaru questions out loud.

Before anything more can be heard Naruto noticed a box coming towards him. He had only met the kid once, but he could already tell who was underneath the poorly drawn disguise. It didn't help that they had already been there for a bit and a long tan rock would not have suddenly appeared from out of nowhere or the fact he had seen it move.

Seems everyone else noticed as well as the attention of everyone was now focused on Naruto and the box as some how everyone had gotten far behind him even Fuki and Tomaru. Naruto just stood looking at the box waiting for the kid to come out.

'Why me?' He thought.

Realizing the kid wasn't coming out any time soon Naruto decided to call him out.

"Sarutobi-san, what are you doing?" Naruto says.

A few of the genin thought Naruto was an idiot for suggesting the Hokage would be hiding under a poorly constructed box following him. Of course no one would know other than his secretary that the Hokage was spying on the blond in his office using the telescope technique. The moment he saw Konohamaru appear he instantly cut the transmission.

"I should have expected that from the man I look up to. Good job detecting me" Konohamaru responds.

No one in the clearing was impressed. Anyone would be able to see such a poorly constructed and executed disguise. That was when the box began to glow forcing everyone to cover their eyes or look away before it exploded.

"Hey, you used too much gunpowder" complains a coughing Konohamaru.

As the smoke clears everyone sees there are actually three kids instead of one kneeling on the ground trying to recover.

"Who are your friends Sarutobi-san?" Naruto asked the recovering kids.

The three kids quickly perked up a little embarrassed as they quickly jumped up and did a weird introduction.

"The one who possesses the sex appeal of an adult, and the kunoichi from the senior group, Moegi" says the girl.

She had orange hair tied with red rubber bands into two very large pigtails that went up at an angle and two red oval markings on her cheeks. She wore a red tank-top over a pink t-shirt that was layered at the bottom, grey pants, and dark blue ninja sandals.

"The one who loves dividing numbers, Udon" says the other boy.

He looked fairly ordinary with short brown hair and dark eyes. He wore a blue zippered shirt, brown pants, and dark blue ninja sandals. He also had a large amount of snot hanging from his nose, which was kind of disgusting.

"The villages number one genius shinobi, Konohamaru. The three of us make …"Konohamaru says introducing himself.

"The Konohamaru Corps!" They shouted together.

Everyone in the area just looked at the three kids, some were wondering if they had some kind of brain damage. Naruto was just wondering why they were there.

"It's nice to meet the both of you, but why are the three of you here Sarutobi-san? We are in the middle of the Chūnin Selection Exam, about to start the second part of the Exam" Naruto tells them.

"We're here on a story" Konohamaru responds.

"Story?" Naruto asks.

"Yes" Udon responds.

Naruto and everyone else looked at them questioningly, but Konohamaru kept going on.

"Yes, a story. We were asked to do an exclusive story on the Chūnin Selection Exam for our school newspaper" Konohamaru tells him.

"So we came to ask you some questions. Please cooperate" Moegi says giving him a cutesy look.

"Please" Udon adds.

"Look I'm not …" Naruto begins before he's interrupted.

"Hey there! What are you doing!" Anko interrupts.

Naruto found it a little strange that she hadn't reacted before, but let it go.

"He says they are here to do a story on the Exams for their school paper" Naruto tells her.

Anko had a sheepish look on her face as she looked like she just remembered something.

"Yeah … I forgot Hokage-sama mentioned something like that" Anko says rubbing the back of her head with an apologetic smile.

"You … forgot?" Naruto questions.

Anko just plows on ignoring the question and the looks the surrounding genin were giving her.

"Alright, we're having a ten minute break. If you are asked any questions, just concede and cooperate quietly" Anko orders everyone.

"Naruto, I'm counting on you" Konohamaru says.

The three kids look at him expectantly and with Anko's proclamation and this seemingly being the Hokage's idea … Naruto really didn't feel he had a choice.

"*Sigh* Alright, let's get this over with" Naruto says.

Naruto walked over to a tree a bit away from the other genin and sat against it as the kids also sat and began their questions. They took out a note pad and pencil as they got ready.

"First, introduce yourself please" They asked him.

"Okay … I'm Uzumaki Naruto, age 12 almost 13. I graduated from the Konoha ninja academy about six months ago somewhere in the middle of my class. I am a member of Team 4 led by my jōnin-sensei Shirakumo Hayama. My teammates are Minakura Tomaru and Fuki" Naruto says.

To his surprise the three kids were each writing down in their notepads before looking at him expectantly.

"What?" Naruto asks.

"Tell us about your teammates" Moegi says.

"Oh … well Tomaru comes from a big family. He's the first to actually become a ninja in his family and hopes to set an example for his younger brother and sisters. He also dreams one day to become the Hokage. He's really energetic … maybe a little over the top some times, but he means well and is a fun guy.

Fuki is a really strong kunoichi. She's the calmer and more collected one of us. We're still really getting to know each other, but she takes her training serious and is someone you can depend on in a tight spot.

Shirakumo-sensei is the best. He really helps us get stronger not only physically but mentally as well. In the short time we've been a team I feel like we have seen so much, but he's always there to guide and protect us so we don't mess up. I don't think I could have gotten a better sensei" Naruto tells them.

The three academy students nod writing in their note pads some more before looking at him again.

"What cool ninjutsu do you know?" Konohamaru asks.

"Well … I don't know too many. We're genin that just graduated recently. Hayama-sensei has taught us a few, but nothing really strong yet" Naruto answers.

The three academy students nod and write some more in their notepads. Naruto could tell Konohamaru was disappointed in the answer, but he would be stupid to answer something like that truthfully with the competition close by and maybe listening in.

"What missions have you done so far?" Udon asks.

"As a new genin we don't get the real glamorous missions. We started out with D-ranks doing things like pulling weeds, walking dogs, getting someone's groceries, etc. We have done a couple of higher ranking mission, but I have learned that the rank of a mission doesn't really matter.

Some times the simplest missions can go wrong and then all kinds of things happen" Naruto tells them.

"Like what?" Konohamaru asks.

"I can't go too far into detail, but my team was called to back up another team. They were taking their first C-rank mission that was supposed to be easy and simple. Instead they ended up facing enemy ninja as did we. It was a crazy mission and some times seemed like everything that could go wrong did, but we managed to complete the mission and all come back healthy" Naruto responds.

"Are you happy being a ninja?" Moegi asked.

"Yeah, I really like my teammates and sensei. Its difficult dangerous work at times, but it's worth it" Naruto finishes.

"Alright, thanks boss. We have to go interview more people now" Konohamaru says.

Naruto nodded and watched as they spread out and got the most out of the last few minutes. Meanwhile Tomaru and Fuki sat down beside him and watched the kids as Udon went up to the Sound team and were rebuffed.

"What are they doing here?" Tomaru asked.

"Same as us I suppose" Naruto responds.

"I thought I recognized them yesterday" Tomaru says.

"Hard to miss them after that stunt with Yakushi-san" Fuki breaks in.

"I wonder what that was really about myself" Naruto says.

"Probably just sending a message" Tomaru says.

"We should be careful around them" Fuki says.

Naruto and Tomaru nodded, but each was thinking they wanted another piece of the team from Sound. Of course they weren't the only ones. Thanks to Konohamaru's stunt the Sound team recognized Team 4. They hadn't seen them yesterday amongst the other genins and after beating down that glasses wearing punk they tried to keep a low profile.

Both teams' eyes meet as they stared at one another briefly. If anyone was paying attention it would just seem like they were eying the competition, but anyone that knew better would see the tension between the two teams. Before anything could happen Anko announced the end of the brake and gathered the teams to stand in front of her again.

"Now where was I …" Anko scratches her head trying to recall.

"Umm … you said this place is called the Forest of Death" volunteered an older looking Konoha genin.

"Right, this place is called the Forest of Death. You'll soon realize why" She says ominously.

"Well, before we start the second exam, I have to pass these out to you" She tells the gathered genin.

She reaches inside her coat and retrieves a stack of documents. Before anyone can guess on what they were for she continues.

"These are consent forms. Before you can take part in the test you have to sign this" She tells them.

"Why?" Sakura asked.

"From here on out, corpses are going to come out. I have to get your consent to that! Or it'll be my responsibility" Anko tells them before laughing.

All the genin adopted serious look though some showed a bit of fear at the way Anko phrased that. It left little doubt to what she meant for most of them.

"Well, I'm going to start the explanation for the second exam. In a word, the limits of your survival will be challenged"

She hands the consent forms to the person standing in front of her which happened to be Tomaru who passed them down to Naruto and soon they were passed through the assembled group reaching everyone in the clearing. As the genin examined the form Anko continued. She pulled a map of the area out of her coat before continuing the explanation.

"First, I'll give you step-by-step instruction on the terrain of this training field. Training Field 44 is surrounded by 44 locked entrance gates, there are rivers and a forest and a tower in the middle. It's about 10 kilometers or 6.21 miles from the gates to the tower.

In this confined area, you will go through a certain survival program. The contents of which are …" She says before rolling up the map and putting it back inside of her coat. Then fixes them with a deadly stare.

"Anything goes scroll battle!" She says as she holds up a scroll.

"Scroll" Kabuto questions.

"Yes …" Anko says.

She then pulls out another scroll. In her left is a white scroll with the symbol for Heaven and in her right a black scroll with the symbol for Earth.

"I want you to fight for two scrolls, the Heaven scroll and the Earth scroll" She let that sink in before continuing.

"All together 22 teams got through the first test. Half of them … 11 teams get the Heaven scroll, the other half get the Earth scroll. I'll hand over one scroll to each team. To put it simply, that's what you're vying for" She tells them.

"And the conditions to pass?" Sasuke asks stepping forward.

"Three of you bring both the Heaven and the Earth scrolls to the tower in the center of the training ground" Anko answers.

"That means that of the 22 teams, half of them will fail for sure …" Sakura voices.

"Except it has to be in time. For the second exam, the time limit is 120 hours. Do it in exactly five days!" Anko tells them

"Five days!" Ino shouts.

"What do we do about food?" Shouts Chōji as he dramatically falls to his knees.

"Be self-sufficient! It's a treasure trove in the wilderness. There's more than enough food for …" Anko says before being cut off by Kabuto.

"However … it's teaming with fierce people-eating animals, poisonous bugs, poisonous weeds, and much more" Kabuto says freaking out some of the genin.

"No way …" Chōji complains.

"Fool, that's why it's called survival" Ino says chastising her plump teammate.

"It'll be fine Chōji, there are animals you can catch and eat" Naruto tries to calm his friend down.

Of course Shikamaru stood in his way and glared at him as he approached the chubby genin.

"Besides, it's improbable that 33 people, 11 teams will pass" Neji Hyūga adds.

"The interval for activity gets longer with each passing day, while the time for recovery gets shorter … seems pretty grueling!" Lee adds with toothy smile at the end.

"On top of that, your surrounded by nothing but enemies, even falling asleep will be a problem …" Sasuke tacks on.

"And, besides those injured during attempts to capture scrolls … there will definitely be people who are unable to endure the rigors of the course" Anko adds enjoying the way the genins were freaking each other out.

"Umm … so you can quit in the middle of it?" Asks the Nara.

"According to the rules, you can not give up in the middle of it! I want you to spend five days in the forest" Anko responds.

"Just like I thought … this is going to be such a pain" Mumbles the Nara heir.

"Moving on, conditions of disqualification. Number 1, if all three members of the team can't make it to the tower with the Heaven and Earth scrolls within the time limit. Number 2, if a team loses a member or if a member becomes incapacitated.

There's that and this is a supplement … absolutely do not look at the contents of the scrolls until you have reached the tower" Anko tells them.

"W-what happens if we look at it halfway through?" Asks Tomaru.

"When you look at it you'll find … out!" teases Anko.

"There are times when a chūnin must deal with super secret text. This is to test your reliability. That is all the explanation!

I'll exchange your three consent forms for the scrolls in the hut over there" Anko says.

She points over to the area where three chūnin were sitting in a makeshift hut near the gate looking bored.

"After that, pick your entrance, and all the gates will open simultaneously!" Anko says before letting out a big sigh.

"Finally, just a word of advice … don't die!"

The genin then moved apart into their individual teams as they each looked over the consent form and decided on if they would sign it or not. Of course everyone signed it and were waiting when one of the chūnin called out from the hut, which had a cabin drawn obscuring the view of what was going on inside from the individual teams.

The teams moved one by one to the hut and turned in their forms before taking a scroll. In his excitement Tomaru grabbed the scroll for Team 4 before Naruto or Fuki could. Anko then called out.

"Teams who have taken the scroll, stay with the representative and move to the gate!

We'll all start simultaneously in 30 minutes!" Anko calls out.

As the teams were standing at their assigned gates Team 4 unknowingly became a target of several teams. At gate 27 stood Team 10.

"Life or death … it's a pain but we just have to do this. Since it's come to this Naruto will be our target …" Shikamaru says.

"What? Why him?" Ino questions.

"Yeah Shikamaru, Naruto is my friend. We shouldn't target him" Chōji says making his discontent known.

Shikamaru scowls at his best friend.

"Look I don't want to go after him, but what choice do we have. Looking at the competition Team 4 is our best bet to get a scroll. Everyone else is just too strong for us. Who else do you suggest we go after?" He argues.

Neither Ino or Chōji could argue against that. Fact was Team 4 was an anomaly. Tomaru was a loud mouthed, idiot from a civilian background. Fuki was just an average kunoichi with nothing really standing out about her. Naruto was the mystery after having been the dead last for the first couple of years at the academy he rose up the rankings to slightly above middle of the pack during the last year.

There was nothing special about any of them as far as anyone knew or would tell them. That opinion would soon change for better and worse.

"Good" Shikamaru says when they staid silent.

'Soon Uzumaki' He thought darkly.

At gate 20 a similar conversation although decidedly more sinister was occurring.

"What about the mission?" Kin asked.

"We'll complete the mission like he wants, but first we deal with those punks that messed up our mission and caused us to lose his favor" Dosu responds.

The sound team when they returned were not welcomed back easily. No they faced Orochimaru's wrath before they underwent extreme training in preparation for their part in his plan. They never forgot the team from the Leaf and had searched for them when they first arrived, but weren't able to find them until the Exam started. They would have their revenge if it was the last thing they would do.

At Gate 12 Team 7 was also focused on Team 4.

"We're going after Team 4" Sasuke states.

"Why?" Sakura questioned.

She wanted to go after Ino's team and beat her down. She rightly pegged Team 10 as being the weakest team.

"They are hiding something. During that mission to Wave he did something. I want to know what Uzumaki did to move like that. Aren't you still curious Sakura?" Sasuke responds.

"Well … yeah but …" Sakura starts.

"I don't care who we go after. Me and Akamaru will tear them apart, right boy!" Kiba cheers.

"Arf!" Akamaru barks in agreement.

Nothing more was said as they waited for the gates to open as Sakura let it go. Sasuke smirked at getting his way.

'I'll find out your secret. Nobody hides from an Uchiha" Sasuke thought.

At gate 44 Team 4 stood waiting for the gate to open in silent anticipation. Looking at his teammates Naruto could tell they were both nervous. Tomaru was punching the air saying how he would beat everyone up, but Naruto could see how anxious he was. Fuki's arms were crossed against her chest while she watched Tomaru disapproving of his antics, but Naruto could see her muscles were tense.

And Naruto himself didn't want to admit it, but he was also tense. 5 days on their own in direct combat against enemy squads and Hayama wouldn't be able to bail them out if things got bad. Their lives were literally on the line.

A little after the clock hit 6:10 a.m. the chūnin removed the chains and lock from the gate. They then heard the proctor call out.

"We now start the second test of the Chūnin Exam!" Anko called as the gates opened.

All the teams rushed forward eager to get started, but it wasn't long before screams were heard ringing out through the forest.

"W-what was that?" Tomaru asked as he looked for where the screams came from.

"Seems we're already behind, it sounds like someone is already out of the competition" Naruto says.

"We should keep moving" Fuki says.

They nod and continue further into the forest not knowing that they were being watched. As they were walking the aura of the place seemed to grow darker and darker. They walked by a weird looking plant that was taller than all the members of Team 4. It had a sort of clam shaped bulb that looked lit it might split open when it bloomed. There were also a number of vines with different sized leafy petals attacked lying on the ground.

They went around it being careful not to step on any of the vines or the leaves. Moving past it they paid it no further attention and kept their eyes forward, but suddenly they heard a scream from behind them. They turned to witness a gruesome sight.

"Aarghh!" "Help me!"

It was a male genin that looked to be older than them. His forehead protector show his allegiance was to the Waterfall village. The man was held in the air by his ankle by several of the vines that had been lying on the ground. Looking at the formerly stationary bulb Team 4 noticed that it was no longer drooping downwards, but was now erect and the bulb split open to show rows of yellow stained teeth about as big as a standard kitchen knife.

They watched as more vines rose from the ground to wrap around the genin pinning his arms and holding him and place as the bulb or mouth of the plant opened wider and wider. A black substance began to flow from the mouth of the plant coating the teeth and dripping to the ground.

To Team 4's horror wherever or whatever the black substance hit turned a whitish ash like color before it crumpled to the earth. The bare patches of ground around it looked darker as the substance was absorbed. That was when a green vine like tongue appeared from the mouth and slathered the older genin in the blackish substance.

The effect wasn't the same, but was no less horrific as the genin stilled and his skin seemed to loose it's color and appear cracked. The look on the genin's face as he stared at them with his mouth still open as if trying to scream would plague each of them in their sleep for some time.

The plant then lowered the paralyzed genin towards its mouth, but before it could gulp down the doomed teen a hail of kunai sliced into the monstrous plant. One of the kunai tore through the vine holding the paralyzed teen forcing it to drop him. The thud that sounded out from the body impacting the ground only made the genin of Team 4 cringe as the paralyzed teen's body landed awkwardly not moving any further.

Team 4 was then alerted to two more genin hacking at the deadly plant as it's vines whipped around lashing out at the two genin. They didn't stop however as they kept slicing and hacking at the plant until the bulb was destroyed and the stem looked like nothing more than a blade of grass instead of the almost tree trunk sized thing it had been.

Covered in green, red, and black slime the two waterfall genin turned towards team four and advanced on them. This seemed to knock Team 4 out of whatever trance they had been in as they took a defensive stance to deal with the two enemy genin. The waterfall genin took two more steps towards Team 4 before they fell falling face first to the ground and then stopped moving.

Team 4 held their positions thinking it was a trap for ten minutes before Fuki dropped her stance and walked over to the downed team careful not to get any of the black substance on her.

"Fuki, what are you doing!?" Shouted Tomaru hoarsely trying to keep his voice low.

Not that it mattered. Naruto was sure he was heard from some distance away since the Forest had grown quite after the Waterfall genins savage retaliatory attack on the man eating plant had stopped.

"I'm going to see if they are still alive" Fuki hissed back.

Naruto also moved forward cautiously. He went towards the body of the guy the plant almost turned into an afternoon snack.

"And what are you doing Naruto" Tomaru says turning to him.

"I'm going to check their equipment and see if they have the scroll we need" Naruto tells him.

Tomaru sighed. Naruto had a habit of being a scavenger of sorts. If he saw an abandoned weapon he would pick it up and examine it before sealing it away and taking it home or putting it in his pocket to use later. Fuki had also adopted a similar attitude seeing as they were both orphans and buying tools and weapons was expensive especially kunai and shuriken that were tossed around and tended to get lost, damaged or destroyed often.

Deciding to let it go, Tomaru decided to take up watching for any approaching enemy. With so many mouths to feed the Minakura family was far from rich or wealthy, but he didn't have it in him to do what his teammates did. Also, they were still close to the gate and there was no telling who heard the screams of the dying genin and he needed to get the image of that plant almost eating someone out of his head. He turned away and allowed his teammates to do what they were going to do.

"He alive" Naruto asked Fuki.

She just nodded her head and moved to the other genin. Naruto meanwhile had also checked his guy for signs of life, but it was difficult as he was covered with the black substance and Naruto wanted no parts of touching that. Strangely enough the substance was giving off a sweet smell that was filling his nostrils and trying to tempt him into tasting it, but he resisted and quickly worked on stripping the waterfall genin.

"This ones also alive but barely, what about your guy?" Fuki asked a few minutes later.

"He's dead, but I don't think it was the poison. I think he suffocated. His eyes look bloodshot to me, but I could be wrong" Naruto says as he stands and moves to the two Fuki had been checking on.

"Don't bother. They didn't have much equipment on them just standard shuriken and kunai and a couple of scrolls, but I can't tell what they are for" Fuki says.

Naruto nods and steps away although he did take the two scrolls just in case they held something valuable before heading back to stand beside Tomaru.

"Did they have the Earth scroll?" Tomaru asked.

"Nope" Naruto said showing them the Heaven scroll.

"What are you going to do with it?" Fuki asked curiously.

"Keep it. Never know if we might need a spare" Naruto says.

"Smart decision" Says a voice from somewhere around them.

"Who's there?!" Tomaru shouts.

"Just an interested bystander, don't mind me I have no intention of attacking you" says the voice.

"What do you want?" Naruto asks.

"I don't know. What do you think I want?" It asks.

"Come out and face us!" Shouted Tomaru.

"Now, now there will be plenty of time for that. For now I just want to watch. You are an interesting team. Your records scream average nobodies that will have boring careers with little to show for it at the end of the day" The voice taunted.

"That shows how much you know! One day I will be Hokage!" Tomaru shouts.

"Calm down Tomaru. He's just trying to get under our skin" Fuki says calming him down.

"Look, I don't know who you are but we are leaving. If your smart you won't follow us" Naruto says.

"Come on guys" He says to his team.

They head south east of where they heard the voice hoping to put some distance between them and the entity.

"Hmm … what an interesting team you have Naruto-kun. I can't wait to see what you can do" remarked the voice.

That night Team 4 camped out in the forest. Being prepared and able to seal items, they each had food that didn't require them to cook over an open flame which was a godsend for them and all three thanked their sensei for that before eating. Naruto ate a couple of cold cut sandwiches and drank some water down behind it. Fuki had a sushi plate along with a rice ball. Tomaru's mother gave him a box lunch which he sealed before meeting up with them that morning. Of course she didn't understand or know they were going to be gone for awhile so he only had the one.

When they finished eating they took turns watching over the camp while the other two rested. Fuki took first watch since she never liked to be woken in the middle of the night and the boys didn't want to risk getting punched by her for doing so either. Tomaru took second watch since he was used to being woken up at odd times by his bothers, sisters, and parents. That left Naruto to take last watch, which he was okay with since he was used to getting up early to do his own exercises and workout before team training took place.

The next morning as soon as the first rays of sunlight hit the forest canopy Team 4 had broken down the camp, put out the fire, disposed of any trash, and headed out to look for any teams that might still be sleeping in. Luck was with them as they found a team close to the river that ran through the training area.

Team 4 stalked closer to the slumbering genin. They were from Konoha if the forehead protectors hanging from their bags slightly away from their sleeping bags were true, but they were older not even teenagers. Both Naruto and Tomaru could only shake their heads and vow they would rather quit than be stuck as genin in their twenties or worse thirties.

Team 4 bypassed the three older sleeping genin and went for the packs figuring they would leave the scroll inside one of them as well if they were dumb enough to still be sleeping so soundly out in the open like this. However, as soon as Naruto reached for the bag he felt nothing but air as his hand passed right through it and instead hit a thin nearly invisible wire.

All of a sudden the clearing exploded with traps going off though thankfully not literally and the traps while sufficient enough to be considered done by someone of a higher rank were also still not sufficient enough to trap Naruto or Fuki. Naruto used a burst of chakra enhanced speed to escape and Fuki used a doton jutsu. Tomaru on the other hand …

Tomaru ducked as a wooden log almost beheaded him only to have to roll to the side as ten shuriken flew at him. Then jumped as several kunai launched at his back only to be smacked to the side by a tree branch and then fall into a deep mud pit.

Fuki managed to avoid the shuriken and kunai not jumping like Tomaru, but instead sinking into the ground using the underground projection fish technique. She then used it to reach Tomaru and help him escape from the pit. While she was doing that Naruto was facing down the three older genin who hoped down from the tree they were hiding in by himself.

"This ones fast ain't he Morie" said a 5'7 male with dark hair and eyes and grey camouflage ninja garb.

"Sure is Hama" says the 5'2 female with brown hair and dark eyes wearing green camouflage ninja garb.

"Heh, it won't help him. Your outnumbered punk just hand over your scroll and we'll let you go hide with your team until the test is over" says a 5'11 male with dark hair and eyes wearing all black ninja gear.

Naruto pays no mind to what they are saying and goes over the situation in his head.

'Tomaru's out and Fuki's probably helping him. I could use the diatoppa jutsu and force them back, but Tomaru's better with wind jutsu than I am and I can't be sure I'll get them all. I could also use my kekkei genkai, but that's also risky and I'd rather not use it against them unless things get really bad" He thought.

Unfortunately he was stopped from thinking anymore when one of the older genin attacked. Naruto moved to the side a few steps before jumping and twisting his body to deliver a kick to the attacking mans head. The older teen wasn't able to stop as he moved forward into the attack and then felt the attack hit squarely on his forehead protector. Naruto winced as his foot made contact with the metal, but the older genin was also affected as he was pushed backwards by the force of the kick and his own momentum causing him to fall on his butt and slide back a few feet.

"Haha … what's the matter Daiki. Can't handle a fresh out of the academy twerp like him?" Laughed the other male of the team.

"Shut up Hama, it was just a lucky shot. He won't get me again" Daiki grows back.

"Sure you will. How about we help you out and get this over with?" Hama responds.

"I said shut up!" Daiki yells.

"I can handle him" He says more gruffly.

"Fine, fine, but I won't save your sorry ass if he beats you up again" Hama retorts before sitting back with the girl of their group.

Daiki doesn't respond turning his attention fully on Naruto.

"Let's see you do that again brat" He says.

Naruto pulls out three kunai and places the rings between his fingers and closing his fist making it look like an animals paw as he hold the arm out and slightly up while crouching down a little. The older genin just smirked before taking a kunai out himself holding it in front of him.

Neither genin moved as they stared at each other. Meanwhile, the other two older genin leaned back against a tree making snarky comments.

"Look at him what a show off" scoffed the male.

"Which one?" Morie says.

"Tsch, the idiot of course. We both would have made chūnin a long time ago if we didn't get stuck with him on our team" Hama says rudely not caring to keep his voice down.

Naruto lost his concentration as he looked over the smirking older genin before having to move as Daiki took that moment to start his attack. Naruto swiped downwards as fast as he could to block the kunai aimed at his chest with the three kunai and then pivoted to his left to avoid a punch to his face.

The older genin used his bigger more mature body to push Naruto back as Naruto dug into the earth a little trying to hold his position. It was no use as Daiki had him on both size and strength and kept forcing him backwards. Seeing his position for what it was he pressed forward as hard as he could before quickly moving backwards without turning around making the older genin lose some of his advantage and giving him the time to disengage and retreat a little.

All the while Daiki's team mates continued the negative comments towards both their team mate and Naruto. They were so busy making fun of their fight they never felt the blow to the back of their heads as they slumped to the ground unconscious. Tomaru and Fuki smiled giving each other thumbs up before tying up the two older genin.

Daiki never seemed to notice that his teammates were knocked out and kept attacking Naruto who know kept a little distance between him and the older genin. Whenever Daiki got to close Naruto would lunge striking with the 3 kunai in a punch like manner meant to stab into the older genin. The attack was slapped away each time, but it forced Daiki to be more cautious in his approach, which is what Naruto wanted.

Jumping back to create more room Naruto threw the three kunai forcing Daiki to move instead of trying to defect all of them. Naruto then went through the hand seals Dragon - Tiger - Hare and called out "Suiton: Mizurappa – Water Release: Wild Water Wave".

Water gushed out of Naruto's mouth moving too fast for Daiki to dodge after dodging the kunai. He was impacted square in the chest and engulfed by the technique carrying him into the river. Daiki quickly surfaced thrashing about.

"Help! Help! Help me I can't swim!" He shouted as he continued thrashing.

Naruto wasn't sure what was more pathetic. Him not knowing how to swim or being a genin his age and either not knowing or not being able to do the water surface walking practice. Naruto taking pity on the man strode up to him using the water surface walking practice and then bonked him on the head knocking him out. He then grabbed his shirt and dragged him through the water and deposited him on the ground before tying him up then dragging him to where his teammates also lay.

"Did you find their scroll?" Naruto asked his teammates.

"Yep, the big mouth had it on him" Fuki answered.

"And it's an earth scroll" Tomaru interrupted answering his next question.

"What now?" Fuki asked

"I don't know about you, but one night in this forest was enough for me. We should head to the tower" Naruto says.

"Aww I wanted to find that Sound team and beat them up again" Tomaru complains.

"Maybe we'll run into them on our way to the tower" Naruto offered.

"Then let's get moving! I want to show tunnel boy just how weak he is" Tomaru says before bounding off.

"Tomaru! Your going the wrong way!" Naruto shouted.

He and Fuki took off leaping into the trees using them for cover as they headed further south down the river. Tomaru quickly caught up giving both a glare for moving without him and letting him go the wrong way. They made their way quickly through the canopy avoiding several more teams and a few traps impeding their path, but not for long. The only real trouble they had was when some leeches tried to make them lunch when they got closer to the tower, but they managed to arrive at the front doors and enter safely around mid-day.

"If you do not posses Heaven, gain knowledge and be prepared. If you do not posses Earth, run through the fields and seek strength. If you open both Heaven and Earth scrolls, dangerous paths turn into safe ones. This is the secret of … can't really read that. It shall lead you on your way" Naruto reads out loud.

Upon entering the building they found nothing except for the message up on the wall.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Tomaru asked.

"It means it's safe to open the scrolls now. Remember the proctor, she said not to look in them before reaching the tower. This message is telling us it's okay to do so now" Fuki tells them.

"Alright, how should we do this?" Naruto asked.

"You open the earth scroll and I will open the heaven scroll" Fuki says.

"What about me?" Tomaru interjects.

"Just stand there and be quiet for once" Fuki says angrily.

"Fine, I can take a hint. You don't have to beat me over the head for me to get the point. I won't say anything else. You'll have to beg me to talk and grace you with my perfect voice" Tomaru rants.

He stops only when he notices both team mates are looking at him blankly.

"Are you done?" Naruto asks.

He liked Tomaru a lot, but there were times when like Fuki he also became annoyed with him. Tomaru just nodded not wanting to be hit by both of his teammates. Not that he was scared or anything.

With that done Naruto and Fuki opened both scrolls. They quickly recognized the kanji for person and that it was a summoning scroll throwing the scrolls a little ways from them. Somehow the scrolls managed to land together and the genin noticed it bulged a bit over the kangi before smoke billowed forth from it. Then they heard the distinct sound of something being summoned and as the smoke cleared it revealed a person. A person they were surprised to see.

"Umino-san, what are you doing here?" Naruto asked.

"It's the chūnin's duty to welcome the genin when they reach this point. I just happened to get lucky on drawing the assignment to welcome Team 4" Iruka tells them.

Team 4 just nodded at that.

"Now I have a message to deliver. Congratulations on passing the second exam" He tells them.

"I'd like to treat you to a meal and hear all about your experiences, but the second exam is still active" Iruka says.

"Well … what do we do now?" Tomaru asked.

Naruto and Fuki nodded also wanting to know.

"First, there is a second part to me being here. I am to further explain the message on the wall" Iruka says.

"But Naruto already read it. Didn't it just mean to open up the scrolls?" Tomaru asks confused.

"Yes and no. Yes, it was meant to clue you in to opening the scrolls, but there is more to it. Read it again please. This is the the principle that Hokage-sama wrote that you should keep in mind as a Chūnin.

The 'Heaven' in this text refers to the head of a person and the 'Earth' the body. If you do not posses heaven then gain more knowledge and prepare. That means, for example, if Tomaru's weak point is his mind … that he should study and prepare for his missions

And if you do not posses earth run, through the field and seek strength. For example, if Naruto's weak point is his strength, he should train himself everyday. That is what it means.

And if you have both heaven and earth attributes, any dangerous missions will become safe … it can even become easy" The academy teacher tells them.

For Naruto and Fuki this just served to remind them of the man's lectures. They liked Iruka well enough but his lessons were always dry and slanted towards the obvious. Of course they couldn't help but giggle a little at Tomaru's expense, but Naruto stopped once the focus turned on him.

"There's something missing though" Naruto voices pointing at an obscure letter.

"Yes, that letter symbolizes chūnin" Iruka answers unrolling the earth scroll.

"The human letter that was in here goes there" He tells them before continuing.

"The survival mission you took part in tests the basic abilities of the examinees as a chūnin and you guys completed it. A chūnin is a commander-class and has duties to lead a team. Deeply inscribe into your hearts the importance of knowledge and strength in missions.

Never forgot that principle and move on to the next step. That's all I was ordered to tell you" Iruka finishes the lecture.

"Is it over" Tomaru groaned.

Iruka grimaced, but nodded.

"Umino-san, we have an extra scroll. What do we do with it?" Naruto asked.

"Hand it to me and I'll take care of it" Iruka answers.

Naruto nods and Tomaru hands him the scroll he got at the beginning of the 2nd phase.

"Sensei, what do we now?" Fuki asked.

"There are rooms, showers, a mess hall, and a training ground through out the tower. This place was used in previous wars as a staging area so it's designed to keep and protect many ninja in a fair amount of comfort. Although the beds are a little hard and on the lumpy side. This place really hasn't gotten much use since the 3rd Shinobi World War except for certain instances like this" He tells them.

"Are there any other teams here?" Tomaru asked.

Once he got over not finding the Sound team he really wanted to be first.

"Actually you are the second team to arrive at the tower. I think I heard a genin team from Suna came in a few hours earlier or maybe even yesterday at some point. If so they probably broke the previous record, which you actually beat by half an hour" Iruka tells them.

"Dammit! I wanted to be first!" Tomaru shouts in mock anger.

The others just chuckle at him. Iruka soon left them to explore the tower and find something to keep themselves occupied. It wouldn't be until the next day that Team 4 would see their competition. Team 4 was taking advantage of the unoccupied training ground doing the only thing they could that wouldn't tax their chakra reserves or exhaust them greatly.

They were training in their chakra control by meditation like Hayame-sensei taught them. Fuki was still the furthest along with Tomaru and Naruto still struggling. They had been at it an hour when Naruto heard.

"**Idiot move!"**

Naruto had no idea where the voice came from or who said that, but it scared him enough to jolt him out of position and open his eyes only to see a wave of sand about to crash down on him and his teammates. He didn't even think before forming the boar seal.

"Jinton: Mueishō : Swift Release: Shadowless Flight" Naruto shouted.

Everything seemed to come to a very slow crawl as Naruto ran grabbing both his teammates and running to the entrance of the room where he saw a team from Suna. Placing his teammates down he ran back to where the Suna team was and hit the red head manipulating the sand in the back of the head. He came to a stop his jutsu ending just as his fist connected.

The red head was sent flying through the training ground, but was caught by his sand that had returned to him before he could hit the wall.

"Gaara!" screamed a blonde with four ponytails on her head.

"Who the hell are you?"a guy wearing a black full body suit and face paint asks loudly.

The blonde hearing that turned towards him as well as she brought out a large fan and he moved for something on his back.

"I should be asking you that. If you wanted to use the training ground you could have asked and not tried to drown us to death with sand!" Naruto shouts back.

At this point Tomaru and Fuki walked to stand beside Naruto confused.

"What's going on?" Tomaru voiced.

"When we were meditating the red head over there tried to bury us in sand. If I hadn't woken up in time to see it we'd probably be dead" Naruto tells them.

Tomaru and Fuki narrowed their eyes as they both took defensive stances. Unfortunately they hadn't brought their swords with them, but they did have their weapon holders both drawing out a kunai ready to attack. Naruto was more focused on the red head as he seemed to be holding his head and not in pain from the blow he delivered.

"That's enough!"

At the shout Team 4 and the two Suna nin looked to see the proctor of the first exam standing behind them. The red head still seemed unfocused and looked to be muttering about something.

"You have completed the 2nd phase of the Exam and there for fighting is no longer allowed. If you continue your teams will be disqualified and all of you will be sent home" He tells them.

"We're sorry proctor-san … our brother is just a little on edge he didn't really mean to harm anyone" lies the the male Suna nin wearing the full body suit and cat ears.

"Good then get out of here and take your brother over there somewhere he can calm down" Ibiki orders.

The Suna ninja both bow to the man and then carefully lead their brother away, but not before glaring at the Konoha team.

"And you three … be careful" He says before vanishing.

Team 4 nods, but looks back to where the Suna team left. Seems they would have to be more careful and stay on guard until they could leave the tower. Not feeling like training anymore they decided to hit up the mess hall and see if they could get a meal before going back to their room.

**2 Days Later**

They were standing in a large room with a statue of two hands holding the ram hand seal. The room was full of genin. Naruto could recognize Teams 7, 9, and 10 along with the Suna and Sound team. There was also another Konoha team with that Kabuto guy on it.

The Hokage and a group of chūnin and jōnin stood at the front of the room. Naruto recognized a couple of the sensei's including Hayama stood behind the Hokage. The proctors of the first two exams and some chūnin he recognized from the first exam stood in front to the sides of him in a slanted formation below the slightly elevated portion of the floor. The purple haired examiner wearing wireless microphone clipped onto her head band started off.

"First off, congratulations on finishing the second exam" Anko says.

'There were sixty-six test takers for the second exam. To think 21 have made it this far. I said to make it less than half, but I'd really thought about single digits.

With that said Anko and the other examiners moved back to stand directly beside the old Hokage along with the seven team sensei's. The genins began to talk amongst themselves a little.

"I'm hungry" Complained Chōji.

"There are still this many remaining? This is such a major pain" Grumbled Shikamaru.

"Sasuke and the others have passed, too" Ino commented with hearts in her eyes gazing at the Uchiha heir.

"Of course … we went to all that trouble to save them. It'd be all for naught if they didn't pass" Shikamaru retorts.

"Seems like he made it here as well" He adds with a dark look.

Ino and Chōji wondered who he was talking about before looking to the side of Team 7 and recognizing Naruto. They didn't know what to make of this side of Shikamaru. He was generally a pretty laid back, non-confrontation type of guy, but Naruto seemed to bring something else out of him and it wasn't something good.

Of course the genins weren't the only ones talking.

"Your team didn't do too bad. I guess they were lucky, but as long as my team is around they can't go any higher. After all, whether you like it or not, ability talks at the next barrier.

Well, adolescence can some times be bitter sweet and can some times be harsh … Kakashi" Gai tells his silver haired rival.

"Did you say something?" Kakashi responds casually.

"Oh my god!" Gai freaks out.

'So that's Gai-sensei's eternal rival, eh? Gai sensei totally looses visually …' thinks Gai's female genin team member Tenten.

'Gai-sensei is the hippest of all the teachers! He shines! Okay! Please watch Gai-sensei as I shine too! I won't loose again' Gai's virtual clone and genin team member Rock Lee thinks.

'Sure enough, the other outstanding candidates have gathered. Uchiha Sasuke, eh?' thinks Gai's other male genin team member Hyūga Neji.

'I'll get you back for my arms, Uchiha Sasuke … at any cost' thinks Zaku angrily.

'We haven't forgotten about you either Leaf trash' thinks Dosu as he briefly looks Team 4's way.

'To think a mere seven teams are left of the twenty-two …" Thinks Temari of Suna.

'Sure enough Gaara is unhurt' Thinks the Suna Jōnin Baki.

'I'll kill you' thought Gaara as he stared blankly at Team 4.

"What, most of the Leaf Village rookies are here" Comments Sakura.

"Hmm … seems like everyone is here to watch us" Naruto comments.

"Yeah, I see Hokage-sama and Iruka-sensei … and all the sensei's are here" Tomaru responds.

"Team 8's not here" Fuki says.

"I wonder what happened to them" Tomaru responds.

"Nothing good, I bet" Naruto says.

'To think this many are left … moreover, of all those left, almost all are rookies … seems my plan almost worked, but team eight was too fresh. The Kurama heir just couldn't keep up in the second phase. It is fortunate that their injuries were mostly minor and they will train to improve upon their performance' Thought Hiruzen as he glanced at the remaining sensei's.

"Now then, we will now have the explanation of the third exam from Hokage-sama. If you will Hokage-sama" Anko announces ending all conversations.

The Hokage slowly steps forward moving to the front of the raised platform.

"Before the explanation of the third exam that we will start from now, I have just one thing that I want to tell everyone flat out. About the true purpose of these exams.

Why do allied nations conduct the exams on a conjoint basis?

Raising the levels of the shinobi and the friendship among allied nations. It won't due to have the wrong idea of the true meaning of that statement. These exams are so to speak … A microcosm of battle between allied nations.

If we look back on history … the allied nations of today were once neighboring nations that continued to vie with each other and battle for power. In order to avoid a futile crushing of each others' military strength, those nations mutually selected a place to battle.

And that was how the Chūnin Exams originally began" The Sandiame tells them.

"Why do we have to do this? We're not doing this to select Chūnins?" Naruto questions.

"There is no question that these exams are to select shinobi worthy of becoming Chūnin. But on the other hand, these exams also provide a venue for shinobi who carry their nation's pride on their backs to fight for their lives!

Many feudal lords and those of prominence from many nations who request shinobi for work are invited to this third exam as guests. And the feudal lords and the Head ninja of these nations will watch your battles.

If the gap in national power becomes unbridgeable, the strong nations are inundated with job requests. The request of nations deemed weak, on the other hand, decline. And therewithal, we can exert pressure upon each neighboring nation … that is to say, just how much military strength our nation is developing and has" The old Hokage lectures.

"Even so, why is it necessary for us to fight for our lives?!" question Inuzuka Kiba loudly.

"The Nations strength is the Village's strength. The Village's strength is the Shinobi's strength. And the true strength of the Shinobi is created only in a fight for one's life!

This exam is a place to see the strength of home country Shinobi, and a place to display this as well. It is because it's an exam where you truly fight for your life that this has meaning. It's for this very reason that your forerunners fought in this exam, a dream worth striving for" The Hokage tells them.

"Then why … use the expression 'friendship'?!" Questions Tenten heatedly.

"I said it at the start, didn't I?

That it won't do for you to have the wrong idea of the meaning! It's a custom where balance is persevered by fighting and removing life. This is the friendship of the Shinobi world. This is a fight for life with the pride of the village and one's own dream on the line" The Hokage explains equally heated in his response.

"I'm convinced" Tomaru says with a big grin.

"Anything is fine, just tell us the content of that fight for life test" Gaara says angrily as he was ready to kill.

"Very well, now then, this is where I'd like to explain the third exam. But actually …" The old Hokage starts before coughing.

Soon another shinobi dropped down from above kneeling to the old Hokage.

"Hokage-sama, please allow me, Gekkō Hayate, who was given the task of judge, to speak first" the shinobi says.

"I'll leave it to you then" The Hokage says.

"Thank you" He says before standing and turning his head to address the genin contingent.

"Nice to meet you, everyone … umm, there's something … I'd like you all to do … before the third exam" Hayate says.

The genin are forced to wait while he coughs and gains control of himself before fully turning around to face them.

"And that is a preliminary to the third exam, with participation in the main battle on the line" He tells them.

"Preliminary?"

"What do you mean … preliminary?!" Shouted Shikamaru.

This was the angriest Chōji or Ino had ever seen him not mention the most animated he had ever been. Needless to say he wasn't the only one.

"Sensei, I don't understand the point of that preliminary. Why aren't we doing the next exam with the remaining test-takers?" Sakura questions.

"This time around, perhaps because the first and second exams were easy, there are a few too many people left, you see. In accordance with the rules of the Chūnin Exams, a preliminary will be held in order to reduce the number advancing" He tells them.

"N-n-no way" Sakura responds.

"As Hokage-sama said before, many guests will be coming to the third exam. So we can't have long pointless matches and our time is limited as well. Therefore, those of you not in top physical condition …" He starts.

'Who is he to talk' thought Tomaru.

'He doesn't look to be in top physical condition himself' most thought.

"Those of you who wish to drop out, please speak up now. The preliminary will begin immediately, so …" Hayate says.

"Immediately, you say …?!" Shouts Kiba.

"But we finally made it through the second exam" complained Ino.

"This is a pain …" voices Shikamaru.

"Huh? What about our meal?" whined Chōji.

Others were mentally preparing themselves for battle while others were excited about getting to fight.

"And oh … I forgot to mention this, but it will be individual battles from now on. It is your decision so feel free to raise your hands and drop out" He says.

'Who would quit now?' thought most of the genin.

There were some hushed arguments erupting among the genin of Team 7 and the assembled proctors seeming focused on Team 7. Not that Naruto knew what it was about, but before it could go further someone raised their hands.

"What … the" Kiba mumbles.

"Well …" the Hokage comments.

Even the Haruno girl about to raise her hand stopped in shock at the silver haired genins raising of his hand.

"Excuse me … I'll quit" says the teen.

All of the genin stared in shock of him leaving after already going through so much to get here.

"Let's see … Yakushi Kabuto of the Leaf Village, correct?" Hayate asks after looking through some papers on a clipboard.

Kabuto nodded.

"Then, you may step back" Hayate dismisses him.

As he walks out the Hokage and proctors discuss him.

"I have seen that face a few times. As I recall, I think he dropped out of the main battle before, as well" The Hokage comments.

"What in the world is he thinking?" He questions.

"Anko" Ibiki barks.

"Umm … yes" Anko acknowledges before flipping through the documents she had as well on a clipboard.

"Yakushi Kabuto. According to the data, he has failed six straight times" Anko informs them.

"What about his background?" The Hokage asks.

"From his time at the Academy he was a student who did not really stand out, and his grades were ordinary. He finally passed the graduation exam on his third try. After that, as for the missions he's carried out, two C-ranks and fourteen D-ranks.

It's not a battle record to write home about. However …" Anko says.

"However?" the Hokage questions.

"It's about before the Academy" Anko says.

"Hmm …" prompts the Hokage.

"Do you remember the story … about the one boy brought back from the Kikyo Pass battle?" Anko asks.

"I remember, as I recall, I heard an enemy boy survivor at the battlefield was taken back by a Jōnin from the medical unit. So he's that boy …?" the Hokage says.

He gives Anko a nod and she disappears knowing what to do. Once Kabuto leaves the proctor coughs before asking again.

"Now then, there are no others who will quit?" Hayate asks.

After a few minutes and more arguing from Team 7 he begins again.

"Now then, we will begin the preliminaries. The preliminaries to come are to be one-on-one individual battles. In other words, actual battle format. There are now exactly twenty people, so we will conduct ten battles. The winners will be able to advance to the third exam.

There are no rules at all. You will fight until someone dies, collapses … or admits defeat. And … please admit defeat right away if you don't want to die.

However, in case I judge that a match is over … err, I don't want to needlessly increase dead bodies, so I will intervene and stop the match or something to that effect.

What holds the key to your destinies is …" He stops the explanation and gives a nod to Anko whom had returned.

"Open it" She orders over her microphone.

Slowly a panel on the wall to the left slightly above the statue opens up revealing a large black screen.

"This. The names of two foes will be randomly selected and displayed on this electronic scoreboard. Now then, let's get right down to it and announce the two names for the first battle" Hayate says.

Names start running through as they cycle and the genins wait anxiously before it reveals the first two fighters names.

"Now then, the two displayed on the scoreboard, come forward" Hayate commands.

Kankurō's only response was a cocksure grin. Tomaru's response was to hoop and holler, which only increased the smirk the Suna teen sported.

"Yeah, I get to go first. I'm totally going to beat cat ears over there!" Tomaru shouted excitedly.

The other contestants looked at him in annoyance already dismissing him along with Kankurō as just being some lucky punk kid that was in over his head.

"For the first battle, Minakura Tomaru and Kankurō have been selected. No objections right?" Hayate says.

"No way!" Tomaru shouts.

Kankurō just shook his head still smirking at his apparent easy draw.

"Now then we will begin the first battle. Everyone other than the two foes, please move to the upper area" Hayate directs.

"Good luck Tomaru" Naruto says.

Fuki gave him a nod before following Naruto and the rest of the genin teams including their sensei's to the balconies over looking the arena floor. Hayama gave Tomaru one last bit of advice before following his other two genin.

All the Konoha teams seemed to gather on one side while the foreign teams went up to the adjacent balcony. Team 4 ended up standing between Team Ten and Team Seven. Naruto felt like a number of eyes were also looking at him as he focused on his teammate.

When everything settled down the proctor got to work.

"Now then, please begin" Hayate says beginning the match.

* * *

**Thank you for reading the 13th chapter of Speed Unmatched. I hope you enjoyed it. Next up of course will be the preliminary battles. Some fights will be kept the same, but there will be some original fights. I am interested in hearing if you want Naruto to fight Kiba or someone else and who that might be. Since I have no other updates I'll just add my first inclination was to have Naruto fight Lee.  
**

**Anyway thank you for taking the time to read this story. Until next time, dear reader :)**


	14. Chapter 14

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or this story idea. **

**Chapter 14** – Prelims

"Now then, please begin" Hayate says before leaving the arena floor.

"I'll bring this to an end, quickly" Kankurō asserts.

He removes the large bundle from his back as it slams down against the concrete floor of the arena making a heavy thud sound.

"Kugutsu no Jutsu – Puppet Technique" Kankurō calls out.

He then rips the cloth off of the bundle revealing a puppet. It resembled a human but had three eyes, four arms, jagged teeth, and spiky brown hair. It also had a tattered dark cloak covering most of it's torso. It was hanging on the Suna puppeteer and making some eerie mechanical like sounds.

Tomaru took out a scroll from his pocket and unraveled it to show the kanji for sword as he poured chakra into it. A poofing sound was heard before the smoke cleared showing Tomaru handling a wakizashi. The blade was close to twenty-four inches in length or sixty centimeters with an all black plain tsuba that had the hole punched close to the guard of the sword and a plain grip. The only thing decorative about the sword was the scabbard or saya which was made of a dark wood and held the kanji for wind largely embossed in black on both sides.

Unsheathing the sword he held it at an angle towards Kankurō and took a few swings before lowering his body slightly getting into his stance.

Up in the stands the waiting participants commented amongst themselves.

"What is that idiot doing now? I bet he doesn't even know how to use that sword!" Ino exclaims.

"I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss him" Naruto says gaining the attention of those around him.

"Why not?" Sakura asked bluntly.

"Team Ten is a recon and interrogation team, Team Seven is ninjutsu and possibly an assault/demo squad, Team 8 is genjutsu and reconnaissance, and Team Nine is a tiajutsu and primary assault squad. Team 4's focus believe it or not is kenjutsu and assault/demolition. Sensei is one of the strongest kenjutsu users in the village after Hayate-sempai and his fiancé.

So few ninja dedicate themselves to the art of kenjutsu or even use a sword believing it to be a weak art better used by samurai and civilians. Sensei wants to change that and show that kenjutsu is a legitimate shinobi art worth studying. As a team we practice kenjutsu every day. Of the three of us Tomaru is the one who has taken to sensei's lessons the best" Naruto answers.

The sensei's looked at the blond teen impressed by his words none more so than Hayama as he puffed out his chest a little. He really was glad he decided to take a team on this year. However, the genin weren't easily sold.

"Still Tomaru might be better than you, but he's nothing compared with someone like Sasuke-kun"Ino retorted.

Naruto didn't bother to reply and instead focused back on arena floor.

"Not going to say anything"

"My name is Minakura Tomaru member of Konoha's genin squad 4. Surrender now and I won't destroy your little doll" Tomaru taunts with a smirk.

"Grrr … you little punk this isn't some doll. This is Crow created by Sasori of the Red Sand and S-ranked ninja passed onto me. I'll show you just how deadly Crow is when I wipe that smirk off your face" Kankurō returns.

Tomaru had to jump back as Crow flew at him fast with what looked to be a punch, but the hand flipped up at the last second revealing a hidden blade. The blade skidded off the concrete floor digging a very shallow trench and creating an awful racket as it continued it's chattering.

In retaliation Tomaru turned and then spun bringing his sword around fast to slice the puppet in half, but only met with air before he slid to the side as the puppets other arm tried to jam another hidden blade into his thigh. Lunging forward he moved to stab the puppet only for it to swipe at him with blades on both it's wrists forcing him back.

Tomaru jumped back to create some distance, but before he could think about his next move the puppet raised it's arm and fired a smoke bomb at him that detonated obscuring the floor and the fight.

Up on the balcony with the waiting genin they all watched the fight unfold. A few watched with disinterest not really caring about any fight but their own. Others watched intrigued by the Suna genins use of puppets having limited or no previous knowledge of the art. Puppeteering was pretty much exclusive to Suna although some of the concepts had been adapted for other uses, and therefore even an ally like Konoha had limited to no knowledge of it. Even at the academy level they had merely glossed over the increasingly obscure art as it was even becoming a rarity in Suna for someone to choose to be a puppeteer.

"He's done for. He can't even hit that Suna kid" commented Ino.

"Just wait. We haven't practiced long enough to learn some of the stronger sword techniques, but there is one Tomaru knows very well that will shake things up" Naruto says causing everyone to focus harder on the match below.

Tomaru gathered his chakra and remembered the elemental training he had done so far. He and Naruto were still perfecting the second level of wind nature transformation training, but he had made significant progress. Focusing his chakra into his blade and raised it high above his head. Gripping the sword with both hands and maintaining the flow of his chakra Tomaru breathed in deeply before exhaling and bringing the blade down quickly in a slashing motion.

The result was the chakra coating the blade cutting through the cloud of smoke and slicing clean through Kankurō's puppet and nearly cutting off the arm he was using to control it before he jumped away in surprise as Crow fell apart, but this time not in anyway Kankurō would be able to control. Not wasting a second Tomaru closed the distance between him and the puppet user and hit him with his sheath before bringing the butt of his sword down on the back of Kankurō's head.

"Winner Minakura Tomaru" Hayate announces after checking Kankurō.

The medics quickly came out and took the unconscious Suna genin somewhere he could rest and recover. Tomaru meanwhile bound up the stairs to join his teammates with a big grin on his face. He had done it and was one step closer to becoming a chūnin and then Hokage.

"Congratulations Tomaru" His sensei says giving him a smile.

"Yeah way to go Tomaru. You totally showed pajama boy who's the boss" Naruto comments.

"Great job" Fuki says simply.

"I was great wasn't I" Tomaru boasts with a goofy grin.

Meanwhile the other teams regarded Team 4 with closer scrutiny. None of the other sensei's could believe that a genin barely a few months removed from the academy could do such an advanced move as the one he pulled off. Chakra Flow techniques were something generally learned by jōnin or experienced chūnin. They were all anxious to see the rest of the team in action.

For the other Konoha genin the reactions was more of shock.

'When did that idiot get so strong' was the general thought.

The Suna team also looked more closely at Team 4 not believing Kankurō could loose to a rookie genin like that. They knew Kankurō was holding back due to the planned Invasion, but there was no way he should have lost his match like that. Something was definitely different about that team.

Soon it was time for the next battle and Hayate got the show on the road calling for the next competitors.

"Will Uchiha Sasuke and Akadō Yoroi please come down" Hayate announces.

As the Uchiha passed them Team 4 swears they hear him say, 'watch how a real ninja fights'. Team 4 didn't let it bother them though as they watched the fight. The fight wasn't much of one in Naruto's opinion, but something seemed off with the Uchiha.

At one point in the match he was exuding a strange dark chakra that felt positively evil. In the end the Uchiha won, but was quickly taken away by Hatake-san before anyone could ask him about it. After both combatants were off the field the names were cycled again before revealing the next match.

"Will Tsuchi Kin and Yamanaka Ino please come down"

Naruto watched the Yamanaka girl saunter down towards her opponent. No one on her team wished her good luck or anything and the other genin save for Haruno Sakura, whom stuck her tongue out at Ino, said anything either. Yet the girl walked down there as if she was the strongest ninja in the room.

"She's a Yamanaka, watch for her mind transfer jutsu. We wouldn't want you to be caught with the same technique twice" Dosu tells her before she headed down the steps.

'Baka, as if I don't know that already. I'll make her pay for that bit of humiliation' Kin thought.

Kin just walked down the steps turning away from her team leader and stopping when she was in front of her opponent. When Hayate began the match both girls ran at the other as fast as they could. They both reached each other at the same time with Kin still being able to get inside Ino's guard and knocking her to the ground where she then kicked the Yamanaka heiress in her stomach hard forcing the blonde to skid roughly across the floor a few feet.

"Heh, your faster than pinkie over there but your still weak. All you Konoha kunoichi are the same, just a bunch a weak sluts looking for some man to save you" Kin says admonishing the downed girl.

Of course this earned her glares from Kurenai, Anko, Tenten, and Sakura but she didn't even feel their heated gaze. Ino struggled to stand up, but was immediately kicked in the stomach once again by Kin and then hit in the back of her head knocking her out quickly. Kin had learned her lesson from the incident with Team 7 in the forest and wasn't about to lose and face their 'sensei's wrath.

"Sousha Tsuchi Kin" Hayate called as medics came and took away the downed Yamanaka.

Sakura watched as her friend was carted away feeling a little worried for her. They had been able to reconnect a little in the Forest as Ino helped her with her hair. She still wanted to fight her former best friend fair and square to show she wasn't the same little girl anymore, but that could wait. She just hoped she was okay.

Everyone focused back on the board as the remaining names were cycled. The next match was Hyūga Neji versus Tsurugi Misumi. The beauty yet fierceness of the gentle fist was put on display as Neji quickly dispatched Mizumi with little effort.

Misumi's ability to soften his body with chakra was eliminated by Neji's precise strikes. The loud screams of pain Misumi unleashed from a few simple touches told the remaining genin all they need to know about Neji. They were all wary of perhaps fighting him in the finals although a few look forward to the challenge.

The names were cycled again revealing the next match. It turned out to be surprisingly one sided. The Suna kunoichi Temari faced off against Team Guy kunoichi Tenten. Tenten showcased some nice skills that involved sealing jutsu and weapons along with being very fast in Naruto's opinion. Unfortunately Temari's wind jutsu rendered all of Tenten's attacks useless and the match was ended painfully by the Suna kunoichi.

The next fight was between Inuzuka Kiba and Akimichi Chōji. It was a decent fight as both were strong fighters. Unfortunately for Chōji Kiba was much faster and unlike in the academy he had Akamaru fighting with him making it essentially two on one. The finally happened after the Inuzuka and his ninken ingested a military ration pill raising their chakra levels sky high then threw down some smoke pellets obscuring everyone's view.

Chōji did manage to momentarily escape using his human bullet tank technique after he also ingested a pill. Kiba nor Akamaru could stop the rolling ball of flesh, which Kiba countered by using his clans Fang passing Fang jutsu. Being repeatedly buffeted by the dual drills of the Inuzuka pair Chōji was knocked out of his jutsu after several attacks and then unconscious by Akamaru clipping him.

The medics came taking Chōji away on a stretcher, which they struggled to load him on and then move to the medical bay. Kiba of course strutted back up the steps with Akamaru barking away happily as they went back to their team.

Naruto really didn't care much for the Inuzuka. He was brash, rude, and seemed to have an over inflated opinion of himself. Naruto did feel bad for Chōji. Everyone knew he would lose the fight as fighting wasn't really in the chubby boys heart. Naruto decided he would take the Akimichi out for barbeque some time when this was all over not knowing that his friend's sensei was planning to do the same, feeling bad that he had goaded the boy using food.

With Chōji and Kiba off the floor the board began to spin again. The remaining contestants were staring at the board anxiously for different reasons.

'I hope I'm not paired against that freak from Suna. That team is way too mean' Thought Sakura.

'I hope I fight soon' Thought Naruto.

'Troublesome, as long as Naruto is my opponent I don't care' thought Shikamaru.

'Anyone but the red head' were the thoughts of the remaining Sound participants.

'Soon … I will kill you all so mother can feast on your blood'

Of course one competitor was not waiting as quietly so everyone had to suffer the shouting and idiotic rants of Rock Lee and his sensei. Thankfully for everyone he was next. The screen revealed the fight to be Rock Lee versus Abumi Zaku. Everyone was shocked when Lee quieted down and gained a serious look in his eye as he gazed towards his opponent who just smirked before jumping down on to the arena floor with Lee following suit.

Unfortunately after the intense stare down and a few words about some encounter during the second stage that seemed to involve nearly half the remaining genin teams the fight was over quickly and brutally. Rock Lee immediately charged his opponent giving no time for his injured competitor to remove the sling holding up his damaged arm.

He just seemed to move right in front of the guy as soon as Hayate gave the go ahead and then connected with a painful looking roundhouse to Zaku's temple that sent him flying backwards. Before the injured boy could even land Rock Lee seemed to just materialize over top of him and delivered a drop kick right to his temple. Zaku landed roughly bouncing off the hard concrete floor before his feet were grabbed by Lee whom then spun around with increasing speed before releasing Zaku sending him flying into the statue at the other end of the arena.

All the contestants merely watched in awe as Hayate checked on Zaku and declared Lee the winner before gesturing to the medic crew on stand by. The medic-nin quickly picked the boy up and left. All watched the broken boys figure as he disappeared from the arena.

They all made a note to not piss off Lee if they could help it. No one said a word as the boy made his way back to his team until he made his way by Team 7 where Sakura thanked him for some reason and then everything was back to normal. As the boy happily declared his love for the blushing pre-teen and skipped back to his sensei where he was further congratulated everyone else just shook their head and tried their best to ignore them.

When the board began cycling through names again the tense atmosphere quickly returned. Thankfully the board revealed the next match to be Fuki and Sakura. When the names appeared Sakura couldn't stop from shouting out in joy.

"Yes! I'll show Sasuke-kun I am the only one for him!" Sakura shouted while pumping her first.

In Sakura's mind this was the perfect fight for her. She remembered back to her childhood when Fuki lead by Ami and that other girl would pick on her and roughed her up until Ino came along. Sakura had never gotten a chance to get any revenge on them even in the academy as she never spared against Ami or Fuki, but she remembered that they weren't that good. Honestly it was a surprise that Ami and those two losers had passed.

'I can do this. I can beat her' Sakura chanted in her mind.

Making their way down to the arena Fuki didn't even give the pink haired girl a glance as she continued forward only stopping to look at her opponent when she stood across from her in front of the proctor. Sakura for her part tried to glare at her opponent the whole way down her anger increasing as it seemed Fuki wasn't even paying her any attention.

"This won't be like when we were kids!" Sakura shouted as she clinched her first.

"I will defeat you and repay you for everything you put me through!" The pink haired genin continued.

As soon as Hayate gave the go ahead Sakura ran at full speed towards Fuki and threw a roundhouse kick at her. Fuki instead of dodging simply caught the kick firmly gripping Sakura's calf muscle before squeezing hard causing the pink haired kunoichi to scream in and pain and kick out her other leg to kick Fuki away.

Instead of letting go Fuki caught the other leg and then lifting the still screaming kunoichi in the air before slamming her hard on the floor of the arena. Luckily for Sakura her back hit the hard floor just before her head did allowing her to stave off a concussion and to stay in the fight. Knowing she couldn't do anything to shake the girl off her as Fuki still held her grip and was preparing to lift the pink haired kunoichi for another slam.

'I can't … I won't loose … not like this' Sakura thought.

Willing herself to move Sakura reached for a hidden kunai and grasping it as firmly as she could threw it up at Fuki. Fuki saw it coming in time to jump away giving Sakura the time to scramble up to her feet and move away to give herself some space.

"I won't … I won't lose … not to you!" Sakura shouted.

Sakura took off running towards Fuki again as she went through hand seals quickly. Fuki recognized what jutsu she was using and almost scoffed as two clones came into view running beside Sakura. Fuki saw through what Sakura was doing easily as the girl tried to confuse her by running in a strange pattern using the clones to mask her approach. Unfortunately for Sakura Fuki could easily solve the problem.

"Earth Release : Earth Shaking Palm technique" Fuki called out as she slapped the ground.

Just like the name suggested the arena began to shake enough that Sakura tripped and fell as the clones passed right through Fuki. Sakura slowly rose to her feet a bit shaken by the technique but other wise fine. However, with her being disoriented Fuki would cast her next jutsu before she could completely recover. She went through the hand seals Snake – Ram - Dog - Rat - Snake - Tiger …

"Doton: Kengan no Jutsu – Earth Release: Stone Fist Jutsu" Fuki called.

Running at Sakura faster than most thought she could Fuki delivered a straight punch that connected with Sakura's jaw dropping her once again to the Earth. Sarutobi was shocked that the girl knew that technique as it was a favored technique of the Tsuchikage. One thing was becoming certain for everyone and that was that Team 4 was a lot stronger than anyone thought.

Sakura struggled to get back to her feet.

"I … I … won't … lose … I won't … give up" Sakura says as she slowly rises to her feet.

"Woohoo! Go Sakura! You can beat her!" Cheered Rock Lee.

If Sakura could have looked up at the balcolney she would have smiled at the boy. Despite how weird he dressed and looked Rock Lee had been there when she needed him and fought and bled for her. Resolving herself Sakura moved to confront her enemy again.

"I won't loose!" She shouted as she threw several kunai at Fuki.

For her part Fuki didn't even dodge as she caught each of them with her stone encased hand. Dropping the Kunai she engaged Sakura in a short and brutal tiajutsu bout where thanks to the stone fist jutsu the pink haired genin once again found herself being knocked to the ground. Fuki didn't allow her to get back up dropping her knee on Sakura's stomach and then delivering another punch to her head driving it back into the stone floor.

Everything quieted down as Hayate checked the girl to make sure she was okay.

"Winner, Fuki" Hayate announces before motioning to the medics.

As they carried the girl out Fuki looked in her direction hidden from those watching above as she mouthed 'sorry' to the girl not that she thought she could see her. Unbeknownst to her Sakura did have an eye slightly open and caught the gesture. She would have smiled if she wasn't in so much pain.

When Fuki rejoined the team she was of course congratulated.

"Awesome fight Fuki, those jutsu you used were awesome!" Tomoru shouted.

"Good job Fuki-chan" Hayama says smiling at his female student.

"Great job Fuki" Naruto says with a smile as well congratulating his teammate.

Fuki just smiled as well and accepted the congratulations from her team mates. This left four opponents. All four looked at one another as the names cycled through. Hayama and the other Konoha inhabitants looked at Naruto and wondered what he was capable of.

Of course some knew or suspected and were hoping the boy would be paired against the Sound kid. Not that they wanted the Nara heir to have to face Gaara, but they felt he would probably give up anyway given who the other three he would have to face were. Nara's were notorious for their laziness after all and the boy had spent the entire time complaining about the whole affair.

However Team 10 and Naruto knew different. Asuma watched out of the corner of his eyes as his favorite students entire being seemed to be focused on the enigmatic blond. Asuma tried to recall what he knew of the boy, but found he was lacking for answers except for his not so secret, but still secret status as Konoha's jinchūriki.

For Shikamaru this whole thing had been one big pain. If it wasn't for Ino he and Chōji never would have got involved. First it was that lame test, then it was that stupidly dangerous forest. He hadn't been able to sleep more than a few hours at any one time during the second stage of the exam and he had passed cranky days ago. The only thing keeping him from unleashing his anger on everyone was that it would be too troublesome to do so, but now …

The board stopped flipping through names to reveal Uzumaki Naruto versus Nara Shikamaru. Hayama stopped Naruto before he could depart.

"Watch the shadows Naruto and you should be fine" Hayama instructs.

Naruto nods and heads down, but not before smiling and giving a small wave as his teammates wished him good luck. Naruto looked for his opponent too finding him standing lazily at the steps like he was waiting on him. When Naruto reached the stairs the Nara moved in step with him until they were both standing in front of Hayate.

The Nara just stopped closer to the steps so Naruto continued to the other side of the proctor unfazed. Both boys stared at one another as Hayate looked at both before giving the signal to start and jumping away.

For a minute nothing seemed to be happening as neither boy made a move. However to those above they could see a thin tendril of Shikamaru's shadow slowly stretching across the floor to reach the Uzumaki.

"Why isn't Naruto moving?" Doesn't he see that shadow?" Tomaru questions.

Fuki and Hayama though continued to focus on the match ignoring the question. They and everyone else watched as just before the shadow could latch onto his Naruto took several quick steps backward. The shadow followed and he took several more steps back successfully evading the slower moving tendril.

Now knowing that his technique was spotted Shikamaru ditched all stealth as his shadow widened and moved to capture the Uzumaki, but Naruto just took several quick hops backwards thus forcing the shadow to come to a stop as it reached it's maximum length.

"I didn't think you would notice in time" Shikamaru says in a casual tone.

"We're fighting on a perfectly flat lit stage. You are going to have to be a little cleverer if you plan to win" Naruto taunts.

"I will defeat you Uzumaki"

"I don't think so" Naruto says before throwing down a smoke bomb.

Shika didn't have a chance to respond before three more smoke bombs went off around the arena almost simultaneously obscuring the whole floor from view. Soon several clanging sounds, ripping sounds, sound of pain, and more tearing sounds were heard.

When the smoke dissipated there stood Shikamaru and Naruto in the same places they were before the smoke screen enveloped the floor. The only difference Shikamaru had several cuts one on his cheek, another on the outside of his left pants leg, and one near the wrist of his right arm. Naruto didn't come out completely unscathed as he had a couple of rips and tears on his clothing, but no visible marks on his skin.

"I didn't think a lazy bum like you would be able to keep up like that" Naruto says.

"I may be lazy, but …"

"But what?" Naruto asked after several second of silence.

"It's too troublesome to say" Shikamaru responded.

Asuma couldn't stop himself from face palming. Others just shook their heads at the typical Nara response.

Shikamaru didn't waste the time he was given as he threw a flash bomb towards Naruto that blinded him and allowed Shikamaru to extend the length of his shadow capturing Naruto. Naruto didn't even have time to rub his eyes before he was captured. The unusual speed was partly due to the shadow already being out and extended to reach Naruto and the fact Shikamaru dumped more of his chakra than usual in the technique, which left him feeling a little winded.

Feeling secure that Naruto was caught and wouldn't be able to escape easily Shikamaru took a few seconds to gather himself. It was a few seconds to long as Naruto also gathered himself namely his chakra internally. He began to move his hands slowly fighting Shikamaru's jutsu.

Shikamaru had been caught off guard by the resistance Naruto put up as no one his age had been able to fight off his shadow possession technique. However, he was able to feed more chakra into the technique slowing, but still not stopping Naruto who flared his chakra even higher as a slight haze began to form around him.

Shikamaru strained to keep the blond bastard from forming any hand seals, but the Nara was running low on chakra and the blond seemed to be a never ending fountain of the stuff as his hands formed the boar hand seal. The next second everyone in the room stood shocked as Shikamaru was sent flying into the statue at the end of the room and knocked unconscious.

Everyone stood in shock at the sudden ending even the proctor before Naruto cleared his throat and the man checked the downed Nara.

"Nara Shikamaru is unable to continue the fight, winner is Uzumaki Naruto" Hayata calls.

Naruto calmly walked back up the steps to the congratulatory exclamations of his teammates. He smiled and accepted the praise although he hoped Chōji would not dislike him after he beat up his best friend. He tried to end the match sooner, but the Nara was good. Naruto didn't like that he had to use his kekkei genkai to win the match especially with so many spectators to view him doing so.

For the Sandaime he had been impressed by both boys, but he was particularly impressed with Naruto. He had never seen the Swift Release bloodline and their was little known about it, but the speed Naruto had attained using it for that scant second was unreal. Even to his experienced eyes the boy was little more than a blur.

Kakashi gave an eye smile to his sensei's son when he caught his eye as he returned to stand with his team. Like the Sandaime he saw little more than a blur, a faint one at that. He was proud of how strong his sensei's son was.

'Just like Minato-sensei' Kakashi thought about the boys speed.

The other Jōnin and participants eyed Naruto warily. They hadn't even been able to see what he did or how he did it. To break through the Shadow Possession technique of a Nara was one thing. Shikamaru was a rookie genin after all and as was the norm with his clan he was quite lazy. One could assume the Nara heir just didn't have that good a grasp on the technique yet, but Asuma knew that wasn't the case.

The main concern was the amount of speed he displayed. If they didn't know any better one might assume it was on the level of the Yondaime Hokage or the current Raikage. He would be a difficult opponent in the next round.

The only ones not affected by the display were Lee and Gai as Lee ranted about how youthful the blond was and how he wanted to fight him in some epic battle to prove himself. Of course the way he said it was a lot more annoying, which wasn't helped by his sensei egging him on. Thankfully they didn't hug this time.

Finally it was time for the last match. It was brutal and bloody as the Sound shinobi Dosu tried to use his melody arms to attack Gaara, but the sand dampened the attack to the point it didn't even bother the Suna shinobi. At least not enough to stop him from sending a wave of sand, which quickly caught the surprised Oto shinobi and then dispatched of him brutally.

Unfortunately Hayate had been slow to call the match and as a result Dosu was dead his blood absorbed into the sand before Gaara unceremoniously dropped what remained of the body. After the remains were cleaned up the winners were called down to join Gaara. They all gave him a wide berth.

The Hokage congratulated them and then gave another brief speech before giving them some instruction on what to expect. Then they had to pick a number out of a box that would determine whom they would face.

The first match would be Neji versus Kiba, the second match Tomaru versus Temari, the third match Naruto versus Lee, the fourth match Fuki versus Kin, and the last match would be Sasuke versus Gaara. The competitors looked at their competition with only Lee shouting in joy at getting to fight Naruto.

Naruto looked at his opponent as he exclaimed how youthful and epic their fight would be. The blond genin knew he would have to train hard during the month. He knew he could keep up in the speed department even if that meant he might have to resort to his bloodline, but he was mostly worried about Rock Lee's strength. The excited older genin showed in his brief fight to have incredible amounts of both speed and strength that Naruto wasn't sure he could match.

He decided he would have to up his strength and maybe learn a few jutsu that could give him an edge. He also wanted to contact the Cheetah clan during this month as he felt bad for not doing so since he signed the contract months ago. But as the genin were dismissed Naruto couldn't help, but feel proud and excited about making it this far. He couldn't wait to get started training for the Finals.

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**Thank you for reading this chapter of Speed Unmatched. I hope you enjoyed it. And I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. **


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